Dollanganger 2058
by GrandpaJoeProductionFanfiction
Summary: How would Cory Dollanganger react if he found his siblings again, and was taken to a world where his family is in the middle of a world-changing crisis? Would he adapt well? Will he find support? And, will he find a special someone to help and love him all the way through? AU, a hint of OOC, and crossover.
1. Prologue

I was 5 years old when my father died, our mother told my siblings and I that we were going to live with our grandparents in Virginia. She told us that they were one of the wealthiest families in the state, and their mansion had more rooms than we could imagine. Boy, were we wrong! I'm not saying the house wasn't big, it is just that there was no fun. Our grandmother, Olivia, was a bitter old woman who punished us for our existence, calling us "The Devil's Spawn" and other terrible things while we were locked in a room in a secluded area of the mansion. She even once stopped bringing us food, forcing us to resort to some unthinkable things. We were starving, and nearly dying, until one day Grandmother brought us some powdered donuts. They were delicious, except the powder wasn't powdered sugar, it was Arsenic. Somebody tried to poison us. I was the first to get sick.

My older sister Cathy begged our mother to take me to a hospital. She took me out of our confined room, but she left me to rot in a secret room in the vast attic where my siblings and I would pass the time since we could not go outside. If it would have not been for a third cousin of mine who witnessed my mother leaving me to die in the attic, I would have never lived to tell you this story. He took me out of that small room, and secretly took me to a nearby hospital, where he made sure that nobody knew where I came from. All of this to protect himself from scrutiny, and above that, my mother.

The doctors worked vigorously to keep me alive, even though the Arsenic I had ingested severely weakened my Nervous system, and nearly destroyed my internal organs. My condition was so terrible, everyone was certain I would die. If it would have not been for Grandpa Arnold, a wealthy, elderly man who had just recently lost his grandson in an accident involving a drunk driver, welcoming me into his home, I would have lived the rest of my childhood and my adolescence as a disabled orphan. No one would want to adopt me, and once I was too old to be an orphan, I would have probably ended up homeless.

It was Grandpa Arnold's generosity that kept me alive in a relatively better state. He spared no expense throughout my recuperation process. He purchased many different types of medical equipment, he hired physical therapists, and he even remodeled parts of his home to make it more accessible for me when it was even more difficult than usual for me to walk. I recovered that I could take small steps with the aid of crutches or Orthotic braces, but I could not run, my legs were just too weak. I felt depressed, and suffered from night terrors for most of my life as William Arnold, luckily Grandpa Arnold noticed my state and hired a psychiatrist to help me process my emotions.

During the time I spent separated from my siblings, I found myself questioning the purpose of my existence. I could only remember a few details about them, but I still felt as if they were the only ones who could make me whole again. I would have given up anything just to be with them again. I yearned every day to reunite with my family, until I finally did, in the most odd way possible.

One day, a group of people came to Grandpa Arnold's mansion, one of them said he was from the CIA, the others just stood there. The others told Grandpa Arnold they needed someone who had little leg function to operate a machine for them, and one of Grandpa Arnold's friend had recommended me. Three of the people in the crowd later revealed themselves as Christopher, Cathy, and Carrie. I was taken to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where I was trained to use a state-of-the-art robotic suit to break into the very home that had tormented me for most of my life, Foxworth Hall. Chris and Cathy had come from the future, and from what they called the "Real World", with their family, and some "friends". I know, did I just say "Future", the "Real World", and "Their Family", trust me, eventually I'll explain.

They said that a wanted criminal, presumed dead for over 20 years, from what they were told was World War III, named Alexandria Burromuerto had gone into the Book" with Betty Deville, grandmother of future US President Jillian DeVille-Hong, and her aging army of Anti-Incest fighters, crossing through what was called "The "Creepypasta Machine" to reach my grandmother, Olivia, seeking funding of their outdated hate group. Their goal was to rearm, retrain, and recruit for an all-out attack on the New Incestatopian Empire, on the Moon. Luckily the New Incestatopians found out about the plan and created a US-New Incestatopian coalition alliance to crush this truly evil foe. As the US, both in what I called "The Present" and "The Future", sided with New Incestatopia, the AIO, or the Anti-Incest Organization sought help from America's classic enemy, the Soviet Union. The USSR sent armed men, weaponized vehicles, and other reinforcements to their aid, and as a token of good will, they sent a Chemistry and Politics/Intelligence student from one of Moscow's top schools, and a soon to be up-and-coming KGB agent, to help lead the Soviet forces, that man's name was Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, I have been told he is pretty important.

Eventually both sides fought, just not how the AIO had planned. It took place on the grounds of Foxworth Hall. The fight raged on until the AIO and the Soviets were defeated, and Zack Burke, one of the people in the group who came to Grandpa Arnold's mansion decapitated Grandmother Olivia with his sword. The only bad part was that Garland, one of Chris and Cathy's sons, brought the head along with him as a friend.

When the criminals were rounded up, and I had regained my full memory, after Carrie kissed me for my bravery with the robotic suit, everyone was ready to return home. Well, everyone but Carrie and I, who had not just been separated from each other for many years, but had no idea what the "Future" had in store for us. Chris and Cathy told us it would be tough to adapt at first, but they promised us that they would be at our side no matter what. After giving my farewell to Grandpa Arnold, Clara Sue, and all those who helped me in my time of need, I went into the "Future" with my newly rediscovered family.

Now some of you might be asking to yourself, are you on crack? I have no idea what I'm talking about, I've been told it's a common expression for my situation. I'm not talking about the attic incident, I'm talking about the time travel and the fighting. Well, would you prefer my family's story to be one of just lust, revenge, betrayal, forbidden love, hate, and pure evil? Personal, I don't know anyone who would ever read that? But, then again, 40 million copies sold would disagree. My new life with my family would be the new chapter in my life story, my name is Cory Dollanganger, and this is my story.


	2. The New Dollanganger Family

I know some of you already have an idea of what the next generation of Dollangangers should be like, now, I want you to throw those ideas out the window! This is a new story, whether you like it or what! Let's start with the basics, my siblings. Chris and Cathy had grown up and had become respected in their fields. Chris excelled to be the top doctor in the entire city, it should also be worth mentioning it's a big city, and they just live in the suburbs. When anyone, or their family member was sick, they would always say, "Let's go see Dr. Dollanganger, he'll know what to do." Cathy grew up to become a professional Ballet dancer, entertaining the millions of people who would go to see her shows. But what most surprised me was the generosity she had, she opened her own Ballet studio to teach the art to the next generations. Carrie still looked a bit like me, but changes occurred, you know puberty and all. Her stunt in growth was a lot worse than mine, but that was soon addressed, and she is now receiving treatment for that. My siblings had grown up, and my older siblings had made their mark on this earth, with three children.

The oldest was Christopher Dollanganger III, he looked just like Chris, acted like Chris, and he even wanted to follow in Chris' footsteps. He seemed to be a true chip of the old block, until Cathy explained it to me. When Chris III was younger, he was fond of Ballet, and she would take him down to her studio to teach him, but he didn't want to wear the unitard that male ballet dancers wear, he wanted to wear the pink tutus that all of the other kids were wearing. When Cathy asked him why he wanted to wear what the girls were wearing, he gave a speech on how it would be inappropriate to restrict clothing to gender, and how pink wasn't necessarily a color for girls. Since Cathy didn't want to displease her son, she let him wear the tutu, she sometimes even viewed him as a daughter. But eventually Chris found out and he went into a rampage, he said he didn't want a Gay son, he hit him until he gave it up, and he later pushed him into doing all kinds of sports. This shocked me, I never knew Chris had such a dark side, but I guess being locked up in an attic for three years can really change a person's outlook on life. Chris III was naturally talented at every sport he played, but he never forgot about his first love, Ballet. He constantly asked his father for permission to do Ballet, "in order to build balance" he said, Chris always refused.

Leigh Dollanganger, Chris and Cathy's only daughter, and the first Dollanganger to break the "C" name tradition. Even though she always acted innocent to get Chris to do something for her, she was no angel. She was the popular girl in school, her and her friends were your typical dumb adolescent girls who used their appearance to get whatever they wanted. Everyone said that she was the flooziest girl who had ever attended the school. Even though she looked a lot like a young Cathy, she resented her mother, turning to her father for support, she reminded me a lot of my real mother, Corrine.

The youngest child was Garland Dollananger, I can see Chris and Cathy were just naming their children after themselves. Unlike his siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, or grandmother, he was not blonde with blue eyes, he had dark hair and dark eyes. He stood out wherever he went with his family, but what got me was that I later learned in Biology, couples with blue eyes have a slim to none chance of having a child with dark eyes. This question puzzled me until Jill's dad, Phil told me "The 1NC32T...will...ahh... will find a way". The 1NC32T was a revolutionary piece in medicine, it allowed siblings and other closely related individuals to have kids of their own without the fear of genetic complications my siblings and I were spared of. Anyway, back to Garland, he also has a hard time making friends. Cathy told me he would spends most of his time playing in the corner, alone. It made me sad to see another person going through the same pain I went through when I was separated from Carrie. Although, some of that did change once Zack recognized his potential, and took him in as an apprentice.

The family lives in a very large two story home in an upper middle class suburb less than half an hour away from the city. All of them care about their community, and are heavily involved in it, well, Cathy cares. Chris, Chris III, and Garland just do it to please Cathy, and Leigh just complains, asking why she has to help. Overall, I would say this family is a good family, an amazing family, and a great improvement from where this family was before all of this occurred, well, not all of what occurred.


	3. Breakfast With An Intolerable Guest

Once we reached the opposite side of the portal, we saw a large room full of what looked like small, skinny televisions and other mechanical marvels. The room was painted white, but I didn't notice much considering that I was immensely tired and the fact that we were pushed out immediately. Chris then guided all of us to a rather futuristic car. But, I again didn't notice much since I was extremely tired, and being that it was very dark, I fell asleep once the vehicle began to drive away.

I don't remember for how long I was asleep but I was awaken by a voice saying, "We're here," and looking out the window I saw what looked like a silhouette of a suburban home. I was brought out of the car and rolled into the house. At the time, I remember few details, but what I saw was a nice clean home that must have belonged to a nice family. It sure did. Cathy went upstairs and then quickly retuned downstairs with pillows and blankets and made makeshift beds out of the couches for Carrie and I. Sleeping on couches was a big difference to the elegant beds I was used to, but just knowing I was finally reunited with my family made up for it.

I awoke to the aroma of French toast, Eggs, and Bacon cooking. I peered over the furniture covering my view and I saw Cathy preparing breakfast for her family. Chris walked in while talking to someone with a small cordless phone. He noticed that I was the last one to have taken up and helped me get to the dining table so that we could all eat as a family, once again. As I got to the table, I noticed Carrie had reserved a seat for me. I rolled in and sat right next to her. Cathy brought over the delicious food she prepared and placed it in the middle of the long table, along with all of the different condiments. Everyone began to grab from the dishes and served themselves with what they wanted.

Remember how Garland brought Grandmother Olivia's head along with him? Well, during breakfast he began to put food in her mouth, and worked the jaw to chew the food. Cathy witnessed her son wasting the food she cooked tirelessly to prepare. She got so disgusted, she screamed "Damnit Garland, why do you have to feed that disguising thing, and you're also putting food into a decapitated human head. Get rid of it!" Garland replied, "No! I'm going to wash it, comb the hair, and we're going to play together." Cathy, in anger, replied, "Garland, I am your mother, and if you don't do as I say, I'm going to..." Chris interrupted by saying "Shh shh shh shh shh, it's on."

He was referring to Jill's speech from the Oval Office, informing the American people and the world about the struggle that took place in the days before. She left out a few details later, I assume for confidential reasons. She finished her speech promising all who were watching that those responsible for this crisis, and in the custody of the US government, would be "prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law."

As soon as Jill uttered those words, I began to hear Cathy chuckling, which soon turned into hysterical laughs. She began to say while laughing, "I guess Momma got what was coming to her." She looked so satisfied that Corrine would be punished for her crimes that even Carrie was a little surprised and scared at her laughing. After that rather strange moment we returned to eating our breakfast. While we heard the noise of the news coverage in the background, someone rang the doorbell. Chris got up from his chair and went over to open the door. Chris opened the door to see a police officer in front of his home, the officer responded, "Good morning Dr. Dollanganger." Chris responded "Good morning Officer."

They exchanged conversation for a while until Cathy went to the front door to see just what was happening. After some friendly banter the officer informed Chris and Cathy that Mr. Riley Litman had pardoned Corrine for all her crimes and sent her out as a free woman. Cathy was so mad that she nearly broke down for hearing that tragic news. The officer them informed them that Corrine had nowhere else to, and if they wouldn't take her in she would, "Most likely end up on the streets." Cathy was quick to respond with, "That's fine with us, good day," and attempted to close the door, but Chris wouldn't let her.

They both asked for a moment of privacy from the officer, he granted them time to discuss. I heard them argue for a couple of minutes going back and forwards. Cathy asked, "Do you really want to bring the hell from our childhood into our home? She took everything from us, our innocence!" Chris responded with, "Yes, she has lost our trust, but are we no better than she is if we don't help her in her time of need?" Cathy replied, "God, I hate it when you get all Dalai Lama-Jesus Christ on me," before hesitantly agreeing to taking Corrine in. Chris informed the officer of their decision, and the officer screamed "Bobby, they're taking her!" Another officer brought her out of the back of their transport vehicle and walked up her to the front door where Chris brought her in. They parted with the officers, shut the door, and brought Corrine over to the dining table.

While the rest of the kids were eating their breakfast, Chris called for their attention and said, "Kids, this is your Grandmother, Corrine, she'll be staying with us." "Temporarily," Cathy firmly stated, stating how much she despised the thought of sharing a roof with her tormentor. The 3 kids stared at her in awe, as of remembering all the stories about her they had heard. Chris brought her a plate so she could serve herself breakfast. Cathy was again eager to state her dominance as matriarch of the household by angrily saying, "Here, eat all the burnt pieces that no one else wants."

Corrine was quickly to sense the hatred in the room and attempted to clear the air by trying to say, "Listen, I know you have heard some stories that may or may not be true. But, now that I'm with you all, all I just..." Cathy interrupted by screaming, "Shut up you fucking liar, and eat your damn food!" Corrine decided to take Cathy's advice and remained quiet for the remaining period of breakfast. The remaining of the breakfast felt really awkward. I wished that this wouldn't be what an average breakfast for the Dollanganger family felt like.


	4. The Mansion Lab

After we had all finished breakfast, Cathy, still visibly angry, began to wash the dishes. You could make out mumbles asking and answering why Corrine would be staying with them. Chris had come downstairs again and told Carrie and I to get ready to leave. He kissed Cathy goodbye and we entered his vehicle. I asked Chris exactly where we were going, and he responded with "You'll see when we get there." I would have been a little more curious about where he was taking us but I, along with Carrie were too astonished with what we viewed outside the window. The suburbs had remained nearly the same from our time, it was the city that amazed us. All glass high-rises grew from the ground, slick vehicles dominated the roads, and people dresses up in unusual clothing.

With the time wasted in traffic, we arrived at our destination in half an hour, more or less. Chris drove up to some kind of security checkpoint, they had to check several of his identification documents, the guards even made him put his thumb on a piece of glass with a green light. While the military style guards checked the vehicle for god knows what, I looked out the window and noticed some flags, one being the American flag, only it was a little different. It had more stars than usual, not like 2 or 3, but like 30 or more. The other flag was a blackish flag with tinted white spots and a light blue ring in the middle. I also noticed some writing and a light blue figure behind the writing, but I wasn't sure at the time as we had begun to drive pass the checkpoint. We were stopped at a couple more checkpoints for reasons unknown. I thought with the stops and the armed men we were entering some kind of military instillation, well it was not, it was a mansion. A mansion so much larger than the old Arnold home, or Foxworth Hall for that matter.

I could see the many magnificent fountains and gardens that engulfed the area, it all looked so ornate and beautiful. Chris drove up to a doorway were a man stood outside waiting impatiently. Chris pulled over and we exited his vehicle and went up to the man. As soon as I could see him up close, I remembered seeing him the days before at the battle. The man was introduced as Mr. Riley Litman. Yes, the same man who pardoned Corrine for all her crimes. Riley was a wealthy man in his 60's, yet his money aided him in his quest to not look or feel as old as he was. He was a business tycoon, he was the CEO of the international conglomerate Octan Oil and Energy Corporation, and with his money, influence, and connections, he was able to build a mansion for his family, friends, and their families. His family included his wife Kc and son Matthew Litman, along with his son's wife Stephanie Hirsch and their children. Stephanie's parents were Sam and Jackie Hirsch, some of Riley's lifelong friends. Another friend, and Garland's master teacher, Zack Burke took residence in the mansion alongside his family. The mansion also saw hold to the Coleman family, the Royal Egyptian Family, spending most of their time in the United States at the Mansion.

While I looked around, trying to figure it out where exactly I was, Chris and Riley were arguing over something. I overheard something about trying to push the "DeVille-Smith Act" and making Riley "Look like a fool." The argument began to end once another man approached the two, and agreed to continue. As soon as the group arrived at a consensus, Chris introduced the second man as Phillip DeVille. Phillip was a man in his late 60's, his age a lot more visible than Riley's. He had wavy brown hair, with tiny spots of graying hair, green eyes, and the physique of a man who works his best every day, but just can't get that slim look of his youth. I'm not saying he was overweight, but probably just couldn't stay fit because he was old. Riley interrupted the introduction by screaming, "Come on, let's get on with it already!" The group agreed and continued to proceed into the mansion.

As soon as you step foot into the mansion, you feel overwhelmed by all the luxuries inside. The hallways were decorated the portraits of the residents and possibly their families and ancestors, and or portraits of influential people. The hallways were also filled with awards for serving in "The War." Out of all of what I saw, I don't know what baffled me the most, but my curiosity peaked when we entered "The Lab." As soon as we entered "The Lab," I remembered it as the same white room with the thin television monitors all around from last night. There were men in long white lab coats which had arrived a little later than when we had with a grey metal suitcase. Chris asked Carrie and me to get on the patient beds in the room. The lab coat men helped Carrie and I onto the beds, and began to pull out items from their suitcases, mainly syringes of different colored contents.

The lab coat men asked how they should apply the 1NC32T, Riley was quick to respond, "Up the anus." Chris asked, "Why, there's an ointment version?" One of the lab coat men responded with, "Dr. Dollanganger is correct, there are plenty of other less painful options." Riley interrupted, "I authorized all of this, and I say up the anus." The lab coat men refused to ignore Mr. Litman's request and pushed a syringe needle up both mine and Carrie's anuses. It was one of the most excruciating pains I had ever felt in my life, but it didn't end there. The lab coat men persisted to inject other substances into our bodies, I had no idea what they were for. All I could do was lay back and listen into the conversation about how, "This medication was the same one used on Xavier Finster."

It all ended after a few more injections, and after it ended, we were both lowered down into wheel chairs, and rolled out of the lab, and out of the mansion. We were both a little bit drowsy and fell asleep on the ride home. When we arrived home, Chris rolled both of us into the living room to put us to sleep in the same makeshift beds we slept in last night.


	5. Dinner With Another Intolerable Guest

I had awaken from my drowsy state about five hours later. I saw some other members of the family watching television on one of those skinny monitors mounted on the wall. I began to stretch out my body, in response to waking up and the desire to use the restroom. I then swung my arms and legs around. At that moment I realized something, "My legs," I thought. "I can move my legs," I stated. I got up from the couch and as soon as I stood up I noticed that I had grown, literally. I felt that I was finally at my right size. Even though I was overcome with joy over having grown and regain my ability to walk without support, I didn't forget why I had gotten up so fast.

I walked over to where Carrie was sleeping, and I put my hands on her. While I gently shook her, I said, "Carrie, Carrie, get up get up!" She woke up from her nap asking why I had awaken her. I was quick to point out my growth and my legs functioning again. I asked her to stand up at that very moment. At that moment I noticed that she had also grown exponentially. She was still a little shorter than me, but still the appropriate size for a teenage girl. As soon as she realized her growth, she broke down and began to cry. Chris had walked into the room, and before he could say anything Carrie ran up to him and gave him a huge hug. She began to scream, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, I don't know what you had to do but thank you!" Chris responded with a confused, "Ah, thank you." I made sure to give him my gratitude by hugging him like Carrie did.

While we shared our little moment, Cathy informed the family that dinner was ready. That night we ate a delicious Salmon, Au Gratin potatoes, and a salad prepared by Cathy. Chris also brought out a pitcher of a drink he concocted for such a special occasion. It contained the juices of some Strawberries, Oranges, Lemons, and Limes, mixed in with some Sugar, Water, and Chia Seeds. It was Chris III's responsibility to set the table for diner. As he brought the items out of the cabinets, Cathy approached him, saying, "Chris, only bring out seven pairs of plates, cups, and utensils." Chris III did the math in his head, quickly, and realized that his mom was incorrect. He mentioned that she has not counted one person, and Cathy replied with a cold, "I know."

As soon as we all sat down at the table, with Cathy visibly irritated, but that irritation soon turned into confusion when she couldn't find Garland sitting down. She was quick to ask Chris III and Leigh, "Where's your brother?" Leigh responded with, "I don't know," and Chris III with, "I haven't seen him since breakfast." Cathy started to think that he must still be in his room, until Chris mentioned that he was just upstairs, and no one else was up there. Cathy began to panic at the thought of her youngest child being lost. As we tried to calm her down we began to hear a noise come from outside. There were about three thumps before we heard Garland's voice say, "Okay, okay, you know what, you're just scuffing it, let me pull you up." We heard him struggling, like if he was pulling something heavy. The noise soon stopped, and he opened the door, causing a small chime to ring. We hear him close the door, and out of nowhere, we see him riding some kind of box on wheels, with what appeared like arms, all while why drinking a Coca-Cola. Cathy, while still surprised, asks Garland where he was all this time, and before he could respond, a voice screamed, "Get off me you Devil's Spawn," those very words sent a shock down my spine. Garland was quick to say that Cathy would not approve of what he wanted to do if he told her where he was going, and as soon as he got off from the top of the box, it was clear why. Mounted on top of the box was the head of Grandmother Olivia.

We were all confused, some were more shocked than others. Cathy began to ask her son why he would do such a thing. Garland explained that while having a tea party with the head, he noticed that the head began to smell. He knew that if he asked his mother for help, she would throw away the head, so he did the only other thing conceivable. He snuck out of the house, and walked into the city and seek Noah for help. He continued by saying that Noah said, "he didn't have anything that could stop the decay, but he could stop it by hooking it up to a robotics system he could create." I'm guessing that this Noah must be homeless because he paid him in food from a gas station for him and another homeless man that must live with Noah. In a couple of hours Noah had constructed a robot that could give Olivia life by sending "electric pulses into her brain." As soon as he was done, Garland gave Noah the food, and Garland headed home, riding Olivia all the way home.

While everyone was still confused, Chris was quick to ask, "Is her body a small refrigerator?" Garland responded with, "I think so, Noah just used a lot of the trash around him." Christopher called Olivia over to put the pitcher of his drink inside the refrigerator. I looked over to see Cathy shaking a bit, looking up, and whispering, "Good God, now there are two of them." I decided that it might help if we began to eat, and focus on the pardoned criminal and hypocrite-on-wheels later. We helped ourselves to the delicious food placed in front of us, and as we all began to devour our dinner meal. Grandmother Olivia was again to point out our sinning ways, because we did not say grace before we ate. Chris, in response, said a small prayer asking for God's blessing on the food, and that since the refrigerator was presumably trash when Noah found it, that it would soon truly fail leaving Olivia lifeless, and that the warranty would have also expired. "Amen," said Corrine after the blessing. Olivia responded with, "Blasphemous, sinners, all of you." We just shoved her over to the corner so that she wouldn't disturb our lovely dinner.

The conversation at dinner revolved around introducing Carrie, Corrine, Olivia, and I into this new family. The stories were either funny, adventurous, or tenacious, explaining all that had happened to Chris and Cathy since our time in the attic. The conversation soon turned into the two older children's schooling, classes were to resume in a few weeks. Chris instructed them to teach Carrie and I all we would need to know to properly function at this school. I asked if there was anything special about this school, it turns out that this school is private. I didn't think that it would be a problem since I also attended private school in my former life. Chris III and Leigh just looked at me as if I still had no idea what to expect, and boy were they right. At least they gave me a warning about my looks, telling me it would put me "under a lot of pressure." I asked that the conversation be changed, and we got to listen to many of Chris' doctor stories. They were enough to keep us entertained throughout the meal.

Dinner was over, and Cathy made Corrine do the dishes. We spent the rest of the day in the living room, talking about what happened to us while we were separated. It was about 10:00 PM, and we all decided it was time to sleep. Well, not the kids. Chris brought out some more blankets and pillows so that Corrine would have somewhere to sleep. Cathy only agreed if Corrine would have to sleep on the floor. Cathy told Carrie and me that Chris had ordered furniture for an empty room upstairs that would turn into our room. Grandmother protested that we were too old, and not innocent anymore to share a room, but nobody listened.

Everyone but Carrie, Corrine, Olivia, and I left to their rooms upstairs, and with Corrine sleeping on the floor and Grandmother just standing there, Carrie and me laid in our makeshift beds, side by side. We discussed what we thought about this new family, Carrie thought they were nice, and do did I. We laid there discussing for a while longer, but we soon fell asleep, knowing that our family would be awaiting us in the morning.


	6. Welcome Home

The next morning, I was awaken by the noise of footsteps. I looked over, and saw furniture being pulled up the stairs. I realized that it must have been the furniture that would be placed in my bedroom. I got off the couch and decided to help in the work. There were two men, who must have come from the store, and the two Chris' who were moving everything upstairs. I saw Chris and asked him what I could do, he said I could bring in the nightstands that were outside. I walked outside and saw two nightstands on the curve, next to the furniture company's vehicle. The nightstands seemed rather light, so I attempted to carry them upstairs. I put my arms around one of the nightstands, and as I tried to pull it up, I hear a cracking noise. I hadn't even picked the nightstand off the ground, but I had already hurt myself. I screamed, "Oh God, my spine!"

I noticed Chris III looking out a window down at me, he noticed my pain and hurried down stairs and outside. He asked me if I was in deep pain, I responded with, "No, it just hurts." He asked me if he could try and preform a technique one of his coaches taught him, I said, "Yes, you may." He got behind me and placed his right arm in front of me, and his left arm behind me. He pulled his right arm closer to him causing a bit of the stress to be released from my spine. He released me from his hold, and I told him that I felt better. He said not to lift with my back, but with my legs, and, "not to get a Hernia." I watched him carry the nightstand into the house, and at that moment I realized the reason I couldn't carry it indoors was not just my lifting technique, but the fact that I wasn't strong enough. Chris III was able to carry a nightstand because he had the muscle buildup to do it, while my skinny body was left in pain.

I attempted to pull up the nightstand with a new technique, and managed to get the nightstand to the front door, completely exhausted, thirsty, and perspiring. The refreshing air inside the house helped me cool off while I perspired, but I still nearly fainted of exhaustion. As I sat down on my couch bed, Carrie was kind enough to bring me a tall glass of water. That drink must have been the most refreshing drink I had ever had in my life. Cathy, noticing my discomfort brought over a plate of breakfast for me to eat, and told me, "Don't worry about the furniture, the men will take care of it." I knew that those words came out of a place of love, but I just felt so embarrassed that I could not do the "work of men." Was I really not manly? Not being included as a "Man" really struck me. There was also the factor of someone watching me fail miserably. Something in me made me act neurotically, causing me to strain my back. Was I trying to impress someone? Reminiscing, I think I did, I just didn't know who yet. Well maybe I did.

I sat there pondering about my masculine state, eating my breakfast. Carrie took small bits from my plate, but it didn't bother me, it felt nice to share with my twin again. I took more bites, and sat there nearly depressed, but soon enough, Cathy was able to delight me. When it appeared that Cathy had left to another room, Corrine snuck into the kitchen, and began to eat much of the food still located on the counter. Cathy noticed her eating what she perceived as her family's food, and she chased Corrine out of the kitchen by banging a pot with a large wooden spoon. Corrine ran to the stairs where Chris was returning from the second floor. She ran into his arms, wanting protection from, "that psychotic woman." She told Chris that all she did was eat some of the food left on the counter, and Cathy responded with, "now you know what it is like to be deprived of food." Chris settled the argument by feeding Corrine the remaining food.

Corrine sat at the table eating her breakfast, sad and alone, until Leigh approached her, very slowly. This being the first peaceful interaction between Corrine and someone else since her release. We were all curious about what would happen. Chris III soon jumped into the commentary by saying, "Son of a bitch, she's fangirling." I didn't understand what that meant, but I sat back and watched. Both of them introduced themselves, Leigh felt comfortable with Corrine. She had heard many stories about her, Cathy made her sound terrible, but Leigh looked at Corrine as an inspiration, a role model, and Corrine was glad to have a secure ally in the home. The introduction turned to chatter, and Leigh began to point out their similar qualities, "Like, we're both very beautiful, we both rely on Chris for assistance, and we both enjoy to piss off Cathy." As I listened to both of them speak, I was convinced that they would form a unique friendship.

I was soon interrupted by Carrie saying, "Don't listen to people's personal conversation, it's rude, I would expect a rich kid to understand basic manners." I was quick to respond with, "Oh yeah, what would you know about manners, hothead?!" I then preceded to throw a piece of my breakfast at her face, she was quick to respond and threw a piece at her face. We lost time playing with each other, just like the pre-attic days. I was so happy that I nearly didn't hear Chris calling us both upstairs. We cleaned ourselves up, and walked up the stairs to the second floor. On the second floor there were more photographs of the family, some portraits, others were individual photographs, or of a group. Some of them were from when the kids are younger, and others more recent.

Chris walked us down the hallway to the door of our new room. Inside, located were two twin sized beds, two nightstands, a table in between, a nightstand, two desks with chairs, and a closet. Carrie ran in first and chose the bed on the left as hers, thus I got the right. The room was not yet complete, Chris had told us that we would also be receiving a television for our room, along with some other electronic devices he called "laptops" and "cellphones." I asked Chris why he was giving us all of this, "Wouldn't it be expensive?" He was kind to respond with, "You have been through a lot of pain in your life, and you are like my children now, you deserve all that I am giving you." "Thank you," we both responded. Soon after, Cathy walked into the room and handed us some clothes. She told us that we would probably want to take a shower. She guided Carrie to the bathroom closer to our room, and she took me to the shower in the bathroom adjacent to the master bedroom.

As I walked in, I noticed that even their showers were futuristic. There was an electronic glass screen that controlled the temperature of the water and the speeds of the shower head. I let the water run down me before beginning to scrub myself with soap. It felt unusual for me to be showering alone, because of my former disability, I would bathe by siting in a tub, and letting a nurse scrub me. Now I was independent and could bathe myself. I scrubbed myself with some soap with a very fresh and delightful aroma, and I rubbed my hair with a shampoo that smelled of fruit, flowers, and honey. I later found out that all the products I used belonged to Cathy.

The scent that the products gave off seemed to relax me so much that I lost track of time. I was in such a trance that when I began to wash my, well, intimate area, I was overcome with the thought of Carrie in the other shower. I awoke from my drowsy state finding myself grasping my most intimate of parts. I was so embarrassed. I felt as if I had no control over what I did, but what really stuck with me was the fact that I actually enjoyed it. I decided to put it behind me, and I began to rinse off. The pulsating massage speed on the shower head did wonders on me. I watched the soap and shampoo run down my slim body. As soon as I was rinsed off, I shut down the water, and to my surprise, vents opened, pushing out air and drying me off.

I exited the shower a placed the clothes that Cathy had gave me to put on. The clothes must have belonged to Chris III, they were pretty similar to the cloths I saw on the people on our way to the mansion. They were a pair of blue jeans, and a shirt that must have been a bit tight on Chris III, probably to display his fit muscular build, but fit me quite loose. I walked out of the bathroom and the master bedroom and into the hallway. I found my way back to my room but found no one there, I came to the conclusion that everyone must have been downstairs.

I walked downstairs to find everyone conversing with one another, and in that crowd, I spotted Carrie, wearing Leigh's clothes. "God," I said quietly, "She's dressed like a streetwalker." I then felt a hand strike me upside the head, I turned around to find Leigh standing in front of me. She stared me down with her gaze, responding only with, "Are you talking about my clothes? Are you calling me a slut?" I was so intimidated by her at that moment, my eyes and mouth were wide open, and it felt as if my jaw was falling off. "Yeah don't think just cause your technically my uncle, I'm going to let your boss me around, cause of the dynamics of this family, you're just like a brother," Leigh told me as she got even closer to me, causing me to step back.

At that moment I realized that the best thing to do would be to leave the area. As I left, Corrine approached Leigh, "That's my girl, displaying her dominance," she said. "Thank you Grandma," Leigh responded, with a hug. "The dynamics in this family are a bit off," I told myself as I walked away.


	7. Sunday Funday

Oh, my first week with my new family, being that it was summer, the kids didn't attend school, Cathy left a few times to instruct her dance classes, and Chris would stop being home for most of the day, since his sabbatical-type absence from work would run out on Monday. It was Sunday, Chris III, Leigh, Garland, Corrine, Carrie and I were in the living room, Chris III had awaken first, in order to make himself breakfast and watch the news, his responsible behavior and maturity was one of the many things Cathy loves about him. All that kept playing was Jill's speech on the state trial against the AIO and their collaborators planned for next month, and as Jill mentioned collaborators, guess who literally rolled in?

Grandmother Olivia observed mostly young adults, wearing clothes that she must have viewed as "not conservative," and on her other hand, if you could call those robotic claws of hers hands, was Cathy in her pink robe, serving herself a cup of coffee, and behind her, Chris in his blueish pajamas. He wrapped his arms around Cathy's waist and began gently kissing her neck and cheek, while Cathy smiled and giggled in adoration. Grandmother Olivia exploded as she called us, "Sinners! You must all repent for your sins. It's Sunday, and we should start off by attending church."

Garland asked, "Church? What's the occasion?" Grandmother looked at him with her eyebrows raised and her eyes popping out. "Yeah, nobody in this house is really observant," Chris III said. "Yeah, church is really just for a wedding, or a Christmas or Easter thing," Leigh added. Garland asked, "Hey, Christmas and Easter, what do Santa and the Easter Bunny have to do with church?" "Maybe we're supposed to ask God to protect us from a guy who breaks into people's home, and from the abomination that is a Rabbit who lays eggs," Leigh responded. "Abomination! Abomination! You are the abomination, all of you," Grandmother Olivia screamed.

"Look, Grandmother, you can't oppress us anymore this is no the attic," Chris said as Olivia approached him. "You can no longer use religion and the Bible to make us feel as we are nothing, and as I have freed myself from your shackles, I vow to never again let you enslave me, and my family, with your medieval cogitatioooon... Oh Fuck, my foot," Chris screamed as Grandmother Olivia ran over his foot repeatedly in response to his remarks. "Now, as there is no clear opposition, get dressed so we can leave, I cannot be seen with those who do not dress modestly, especially the harlot," Olivia said referring to Leigh. Leigh was visibly upset but did nothing since she didn't have the courage to stand up to that monster Olivia, she would only harass those who she knew she could dominate.

Around 20 minutes later, we all walked down the stairs, dresses in our best and modest clothes. Grandmother Olivia called us to line up for "inspection," as she rolled next to us, inspecting our clothing, she stopped at Leigh. She was outraged at how short Leigh's skirt was. Leigh responded with, "This is my school uniform, if you think this is too revealing, you don't want to see my personal outfits." Grandmother Olivia decided not to respond, she viewed it as a waste of her time, and after that quarrel, we exited the home.

As we all were outside, waiting for directions on how we would get to church. Chris came from locking the house door shut and said, "Well, there seems to be too many people so that we could all go in one car, so I recommend we break up in two, Alltheguyscomecomecomewithme!", "Runrunrunrunrunrun!" All of the males ran quickly into Chris's red sports car, and we left immediately, I felt a bit guilty leaving Carrie alone, so I asked Chris where we were going. He responded with, "We need to hide for a while, maybe the whole day, and, God, do I need to rest my foot, it hurts like hell!" I figured we would be spending the day away from Grandmother Olivia, and the thought of Carrie having to suffer for the both of us, only made me feel guiltier, but soon I heard the horn of a vehicle approaching us.

My thought of wondering why I was hearing that noise were soon disrupted by the motion of something impacting Chris's vehicle. Chris responded with, "What the hell," and looked outside the passenger's window to see Cathy in the driver's seat but Grandmother's hands on the steering wheel. Cathy screamed to Chris, "Oh god, Chris, she's crazy!". "Tell me something I don't know," Chris responded. "I crashed into you so that you wouldn't try to escape, now take us to church or I'll destroy this earthly possession of yours," screamed Grandmother

Olivia. Chris drove nervously for a while, until we reached the church, and as soon as we parked, Chris got off immediately and ran off to the back of his car. There, we all witnessed him sitting on the pavement, crying. "My baby, my baby," he screamed. That sadness soon turned into anger when he got off the floor and went towards Olivia and screamed, "You, you crazy assed bitch! You dented my car! I am going to beat your ass, do you know how much it is going to cost to fix it!" As Chris kept rambling, Olivia rolled over to him and ran over his foot, again. While Chris was in even more pain, Grandmother Olivia got in between us and said, "Now that we are here, let us enter the holy temple of God."

While inside the church, we all waited for the service to begin. I sat up strait, and try to be as respectful as I could be, as a good Christian. Carrie looked around nervously, she was so traumatized by Grandmother's fanaticism, and she had a distrust of religious institutions. Cathy tried to help Chris ease the pain in his foot. Leigh leaned back in the wooden pew, spreading her legs wide open, complaining on why they had to be there, and other disrespectful acts. Grandmother Olivia stood in the very front, with an anxious look on her face, she wanted the service to begin as soon as possible. The other three were truly indifferent to the situation.

The service began a few minutes after we arrived. We sat and we listened to the sermon that Pastor Williams delivered. As I looked back and noticed that most we were not paying attention, I was surprised because the pastor was saying rather unusual things. He spoke of allowing "Unconventional" couples marry such as Homosexuals and people in incestuous relationships marry. I was taken back by a man publicly accepting Homosexuals, yet, I chose not to let that change my opinion of Pastor Williams. I remembered Matthew 7:1 at that moment, "Judge not lest ye be judged." If only Grandmother Olivia could have seen it in the way I saw it too.

After the service, I noticed that after the Pastor had left to his office Grandmother Olivia followed him in there. While the rest of the family was waking Leigh from her slumber, I followed Grandmother Olivia, and listened to the conversation between her and the pastor from behind the door. "You sir, are no man of God, even a Kike has more knowledge of the teaching of the one true son of God," Olivia screamed at the Pastor. "Well, I'm not so sure about that, I have a PhD in Religious Studies from Samford," Pastor Williams responded. Grandmother Olivia was so angry, she responded back with, "I this what society has come to, where the wicked and self-righteous rule the world, while us true beliers are marginalized." "Well, if you truly feel that way, may I recommend the Westboro Baptist Church if you don't mind spending your time with two old men, I think there's just two of them left now," Pastor Williams suggested. "No, no, no, I need to be in a community setting, listening to the true gospel, and condemning those who do not follow its teachings," Grandmother Olivia remarked.

I was at that moment Pastor Williams hesitantly responded, "Well, if you want a strict conservative interpretation of the bible, may I recommend the Catholic Church." "My family did hire many Dagos as domestic servants around the home, so it is not as if I am unfamiliar with their culture. Yet, I never imagined myself as a Papist, but if it is the price to pay to be with like-minded individuals, so be it," Grandmother Olivia said to Pastor Williams as she turned around, and headed for the door.

Although, before she left, Pastor Williams had to tell Grandmother Olivia something very important. "Wait, before you go, be sure to go to the Bimbonian Catholic Church, not the O'shaughnessian Catholic Church. The O'shaughnessian church is just like us, except, well, you know, Catholic," Pastor Williams said. Grandmother Olivia then asked, "Do you mean to tell me their zenith of biblical knowledge is as diminutive as yours?" "Yes, yes it is," Pastor Williams said hesitantly. When I saw Grandmother Olivia closer to the door, I ran away from the door. I knew she would find a way to say my spying was a sin of some sorts. I ran to the front of the church, while nearly running out of breath, and found the rest of the family siting on some benches under a tree. I told them not to ask questions, especially when Grandmother Olivia was present. We returned home so that the family could return to their regular Sunday plans, and so that Chris could attended to his injured foot.


	8. Back To School

It was a Monday morning, two and a half weeks into August, and it was the day school began. The kids attended the most prestigious private school in the country, some called it the most prestigious in the world. I woke up at 7:00 AM, I no longer could spend my nights up with Carrie and the kids, either talking or watching films. Cathy served us a quick breakfast, we washed ourselves, put on our uniforms, and left for the school. It was about a half hour drive to the school, and once we made it to the school property both Carrie and I were astonished at the lavish neoclassical architecture. It was very similar to the Mansion. On our drive to the front of the school, you could see giant posters of a man, with quotes such as, "I am your Shepard," "For I am not just human, I am also perfect," and "Compare your worthless lives to mine and then kill yourselves." While his expression was either a serious or glad one, the quotes terrified me. I got even more scared once I noticed how Chris III and Leigh would look back at Carrie and me, reminding me of their previous warning at the first dinner we ate as a family.

When we arrived to the front, Chris III, Leigh, Carrie and I got off. Cathy had to take Garland to another school for younger students. There was a line forming to enter the school, and in front of the corridor where the line formed was a golden statue of the same man on the posters. The line had formed because all who enter the school must kiss the hand of the statue. Student and student passed into the school after kissing the hand, and soon we approached. While Chris III kissed the hand, Carrie was too distracted by the marvelous landscaping to even notice the statue. Leigh kissed the hand, and then I presses my lips against the gold, pecking it. Carrie was so distracted by the landscaping that I had to call her name to come, and she followed me into the hallway, without kissing the statue.

As I looked towards the end of the hallway, I heard the voice of two men hurrying to the scene. I turned around to find Carrie in the grip of these two heavily armed men. They had her in a hold that caused her much pain, and they pushed her head next to the statue, yelling at her, "Kiss him, kiss the hand, do it you bitch!" It was at that moment that my blood boiled and I ran with all my strength straight into the guards. I punched and scratched them, screaming, "Let her go! Let her go!" One of the guards was able to get me off the other guard. There was such a scene that Chris III ran from the end of the hallway to the guards, telling them, "Please don't punish them, they are new to this school, they don't know how to honor our Great Leader, I'll make sure they learn though, please!" "Fine, I'll release them Mr. Dollanganger, but if they mess up again we will have to punish them," one of the guards said. "Thank you," said Chris III.

Carrie ran into my arms, quietly crying. Chris III told her, "Stop crying. Now, to make sure that this does not happen again, you have to follow these rules every time, when you see a statue, you must kiss it's hand, when you see a portrait or mural, you bow, and most importantly, never, under any circumstances ever criticize these rules, there are cameras and microphones all throughout the campus, and you will be punished if you break these rules." Once we broke out of our state of shock, Chris III guided us down the hallway. At the end of the hallway, was a very large outdoor open space, more of the amazing landscaping that distracted Carrie. "Well Leigh, see you later," said Chris III as Leigh walked away. "Wait, take Carrie with you," Chris III told Leigh.

Carrie followed Leigh and they walked off somewhere while Chris III took me to the auditorium. Inside was a herd of male blondes, and Chris III and I stood in the crowd. I asked him what we were doing in the auditorium. "They're choosing the student that will portray the Great Leader. Every Friday we put on a presentation for him, and the student who portrayed him last year graduated," Chris III responded. "Wow, posters, portraits, statues, and performances, this Great Leader must be a very important man," I thought. As I looked around my fellow candidates, the man who would inspect the students walked in. Chris III told me to stand still and let the man inspect up.

The man walked next to the students while holding a photo of the "Great Leader" next to their faces. Those who looked similar to the "Great Leader" were told to go to the left, and those who shared less of a resemblance were let out of the auditorium. Eventually the man got to our row, he called Chris III to the left. When he got to me, he stood in front of me for a while, with his eyes nearly popping out of his eye sockets. He immediately called one of his assistants over and they quickly exchanged words. The two men came to a consensus, and the first man put his hand on my back and pushed me towards the stage. "Come on son," he told me.

I found myself on stage, with everyone in the auditorium looking at me. I was so shocked that I nearly didn't hear the man say, "Hey boy, can you sing." "Uh, yes, sir," I responded. He then asked me, "Well, can you give us a little taste?" I asked for a banjo to go along with my song, and the man's assistant brought me one. "Oh, okay, this is a song I wrote as a child, I hope you enjoy it," I said. "I wish the night would end, I wish the day'd begin, I wish it would rain or snow, or the wind would blow, or the grass would grow, I wish I had yesterday, I wish there were games to play." As soon as I was done the entire auditorium broke out in cheers, everyone began to clap and whistle. "My god son they love you. Smile, you're on every television station and social media platform in the world right now," the man said. "Wow, every television station in the world," I thought. I smiled and waved at the cameras that I had just begun to notice.

While smiling and waving at the cameras, the man asked, "One final question boy, what's your name?" "My name, my name is Cory, Cory Dollanganger," I said as looked off into the cheering crowd. "Well Cory, you're off to a great start, you're trending already, #Nextgreatleader, #Corydollanganger, #Iwishthenightwouldend, #Itoldyouhewasalive, #Thenameiscorydollangangernomoreofthatwilliamarnoldandersonbullshit," he excitedly said. The man was quick to ask, "Congratulations Cory, do you have any questions?" "I actually do," I said. He asked, "What is it?!" I responded with my own question, "What does Trending mean?" Suddenly the man's expression turned from one of excitement to one that just screamed, "Really!"


	9. Congratulations Great Leader

I was taken into an adjacent office room while the other students were excused from the auditorium. Inside the office, many televisions were on. "Ha, you see, you're an instant hit," the man said as he pointed at one television, see Japan. "Kōrī Dōrangyangā eraba remashita no byōsha Mashū Rittoman sū-bu mae ni." "Korea," the man said. "Koli Dollangangeleu Maetyu Liteuman-eul myeoch bun jeon-e myosahagi wihae seontaegdoeeossda." "China," the man said. "Kē lǐ·Duǒ lǎng áng ài ěr bèi xuǎn wéi lái miáohuì Mǎ xiū·Lì tè màn zài jǐ fēnzhōng qián." "India," the man said. "Kōrī Ḍōllaṅgaṅga citrita karanē kē li'ē cunā gayā thā Maithyū Litman kucha hī minaṭa pahalē." "The United Arab Emirates," the man said. "Wqd tm akhtyar Kuri Dulilanjanjir ltswyr Mata Liatman qbl bd' dqayq." "Russia," the man said. "Kori Dollangendjerı byl vybran, chtoby izobrazit' Met'yu Litman neskol'ko minut nazad." "Germany," the man said. "Cory Dollanganger wurde gewählt, um Matthew Litman darzustellen vor ein paar Minuten." "Brazil," the man said. "Cory Dollanganger foi escolhido para retratar Matthew Litman alguns minutos atrás." "And of course, the good old' US of A," the man said. "Cory Dollanganger was chosen to portray Matthew Litman a few minutes ago."

I twirled around the televisions witnessing all the news anchors talking about me, replaying the recording of me singing. While I stood there, basking in my pride, my phone began to ring. I took it out of my pocket and saw it was Chris calling me. I answered his call and put the phone next to the side of my face. "Hello," I asked. "Hey Cory, I'm watching the news, congratulations," Chris said sincerely. "Oh, thank you Chris, this all came as a surprise," I replied. "Well, I can't talk for long, I've just cut up some guy, but we will definitely celebrate tonight," he told me. I asked out of concern, "Wait, you're in the middle of an operation, why are you watching the news?" "Ah, calm down Cory, I can do two things at the same time. My patient is just the first democratically elected President of Uzbekistan. Man, you're acting like Cathy when the President of the European Commission suffered complications under my watch and inexplicably died a few hours after the operation," Chris said with a know-it-all attitude. "Doctor, doctor, you just cut one of the patient's Arteries," said a nurse frantically. "Listen, I have to go, this guy is bleeding all over me," he said irritated.

I brought the phone down from my face and put it in my pocket. The man pulled out a chair for me next to his desk. I sat down on the chair and adjusted myself as he served himself some Scotch. The man asked, "So you do know who you are portraying for the rest of your time at this school?" "Uh, him," I asked while pointing to a portrait of the "Great Leader" behind the man's chair. The man turned his head to look at the portrait and then looked back at me and asked, "And who is that man exactly?" I finally had time to observe the "Great Leader," and I noticed that I had seen him in the days before we left for the "Real world." "Yes, I saw him at Foxworth's, and you too, you were at the battle," I said. "Ah, yes, I was part of the coalition. I was only on your side for my mother's sake," the man said. "But the man you look at is indeed a 'Great Leader.' A visionary, an International hero and treasure, and above all, a true gift of God. The man you feast your eyes upon is my father, Matthew Litman," he said mesmerized.

"Matthew Litman," I thought. "Matthew Litman, Litman, Litman, like Riley Litman," I asked. "Ah yes, my grandfather," the man said. "Yes, I met him, at the battle, and at his mansion," I said. I then asked him one question that had been on my mind for a long time, "Hey, I have one question, why did he pardon Corrine?" "Well, I cannot give you the answer to that question, but I can assure you, It was all for the better," he responded. "Well, I'm not sure about that, Cathy is pretty irritated, she's keeping her eyes on Corrine," I said as a counterstatement. "Well, I can't do anything about, so we might as well move along," He eagerly said.

The man got out of his chair and walked behind me, and while he walked towards me. He said, "You look so much like my father when he was your age, the eyes, the face, not the attractiveness, but you can't win them all." It's just one thing, the hair," he said as he held my hair between his fingers. "It's too curly, but don't worry, you'll have your own stylist team to help you," he said. "But, I don't want you to change my hair, I like my hair how it is," I said in a terrified voice. He quickly responded, "Well, I'm sorry we have to get off on the wrong foot, but you have no choice." He then asked, "Is this the signature of your legal guardian?" The document was signed Dr. Christopher G. Dollanganger Jr. "This document says that if selected by the school, you have to subject yourself to everything we tell you to do," the man said. How could Chris sign that document I thought, I wasn't informed about it until now? "So, we'll see you after school to prepare you," the man said while guiding me outside of the office. Once outside, he walked away, leaving me alone in the auditorium. I noticed the time and decided that it was time to go to class. I pulled out my schedule and my map of the school, and walked off to my first class.


	10. Class Of The Past

I found my way around the campus ground with the help of my map, and navigated myself to room 811, War History. It was a classroom of about 20 students, all nice and clean with flags of various countries and posters of various events, locations, and people. I scanned the room for an empty seat before I noticed Carrie, waving her arm in the air, and pointing down at the seat next to her. I walked over to the empty seat, and sat down next to her, but before I could tell her about my experience, in came the instructor.

The instructor was a redheaded woman in a green coat. "Good morning class, I'm Mrs. Robinson, and I will be your teacher this year," she said as she introduced herself. "Throughout the following year, I will instruct you on every single element of the most destructive war in human history," the woman said. Out of nowhere, I felt the need to ask, "World War II?" The rest of the students chuckled, and this one student, Troy, leaned back on his chair and looked at me and said, "Dumbass." "Okay, settle down class," she commanded, and the students did. "No, not World War II, we will be learning about one of the most recent, and the most catastrophic war ever. It goes by many names, but to spare the feelings of one of our Great Leader's friend, we will be referring to it as World War III."

Confused, I asked frantically, "World War III!? But, but, how? Look outside, look at the lush landscape. If World War III already occurred, why isn't everything dead? You know, like Daisy Girl, and all that stuff!?" All the students looked at me, and Troy was quick to respond, "Really, they chose you? Dumbass." "Okay, again, settle down, that's why you have this class, we will clear out all the wrong ideas you might have about World War III," she reminded the class. The instructor asked, "Okay, just to see where we stand, who here knows when the war began?" "You," she said as she pointed towards one student named Peter. "Well there were many precursors to the breakout of the war, but combat officially began on March 2012 in Chihuahua, Mexico, right after the hostage rescue," Peter answered.

"Very good," the teacher responded. "In fact, our Great Leader's mother was a hostage during the crisis. He was also in his mother's womb during the hostage crisis. His family and their friends also fought gallantly in that first battle, and only a few hours after that first battle ended, our Great Leader was born," she said as she raised her arm to his portrait behind her. I looked at the portrait and admired it, up on the wall with small lamps lined around it to emphasize its importance.

"Okay, so, who can name the various conflicts during the war," asked the instructor. Various students rose their hand, and one by one, they began to spur out various names. "The Incestatopian-American Conflict," "The Anglo-Hutterite War," and "The alternate universe's Second American Civil War" were just some of the conflicts named by the students in my class. As they named conflict after conflict, Carrie and I just listened in awe, turning our heads to look at whoever was speaking. I eventually dazed off into a state where it was just my thoughts I heard. I asked myself, "Could it be true? Could the Reds never have launched their bombs at us? Could the fears of Grandpa Arnold and his politician friends be just that, fears, not truths?" The remaining time in that class was spent discussing what the students already knew about the war. Little did Carrie and I know it would clear up our "origins," affecting our lives forever?


	11. Lunch and Discussion

As soon as War History was over, I found myself in various classrooms, all with instructors teaching various subjects. After War History, came Literature, then came a short break, Biology, Foreign Language, Physical Education, and finally, our lunch break. For lunch, I ate Grilled Lemon-Herb Chicken with Feta Rice on the side, Carrie ate a Caesar Salad. If there is an advantage of having Amnesia, it would be forgetting you hate eating certain foods because you ate it so often before, and when I regained my memory, I had grown to feel indifferent of chicken, from the perspective of my opinion of chicken during the attic days, of course. Today, I find chicken to be just another meal.

We ate our food, while conversing with one another, talking about our experience thus far. She was so excited I was chosen to portray the "Great Leader." I wanted to know if she had been chosen for anything, I asked her, and she said, "They told me they would tell me if I got any role." We ate the rest of our lunch, and then on of Mr. Litman's assistants came over to us and handed Carrie a Manila envelope. The assistant walked away before Carrie was able to open it. Inside the folder was a sheet of paper, it read, "You have been chosen to play someone so despicable, and so heinous, she doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in an e-mail. You will play, the betrayer of our Great Leader's heart, the Whore of Budapest, Ava Telek."

"Okay, that is an oddly specific name, I don't know how or why, but it feels directed at you Carrie, "I stated while observing the paper. I continued eating my food, and all of a sudden, Carrie asked me an odd question, "Do you think I'm a whore?" I looked into her desperate eyes and said, "No. you're not a whore." She asked, "Well, why was I selected to portray one?" I responded, "You probably just resemble her, it's probably not anything personal." She still appeared a bit depressed, luckily Chris III and Leigh had just gotten their food, and I called them over for help. I explained the situation, and Leigh responded with, "Well, of course we'd like to help you with your pain in the ass problems, when we'd rather be with our own friends." "Shut up Leigh, she needs our help," Chris III responded.

Chris III came to the conclusion that it would help Carrie if Leigh told her who she had been chosen to portray. Leigh was quick to respond with, "I don't know, mine was actually very kick-ass." "No she wasn't, she was a mentally disturbed drug addict who was always pulling different stunts with Kim Jong Un," Chris III remarked. "Yeah, but at least she got shit done, not like that angry old guy who ran for president in the 2016 election. You know, Barney Clara Sue Saunders," Leigh said with confidence. Chris III eagerly responded, "Barney Clara Sue Saunders, Clara Sue Saunders is Cory's sister!" "What, I thought they said her fucking name was Carrie," Leigh said. "No, the other one," Chris III said. "Mom's fucking name is not Clara Sue Saunders," Leigh responded. "No, his other sister, when he was William Arnold," Chris III said. "Well, Barney 'The Purple Dinosaur' Saunders, or Sandals, or whatever," Leigh said angry and confused. "Shut the hell up Leigh, you don't know jack shit about politics. Stop trying to sound smart! Oh, and don't bad mouth Momma," Chris III said as a final response.

Leigh smirked while she said, "Ha, Momma, calm down you Oedipus-Complex-having son of a bitch." Chris III exclaimed irritated, "What did I say, what did I say!" Leigh stated and asked while leaning closer to Chris III, "Yeah, you heard what I said. What are you going to do about it? Momma's boy!" The both of them continued to argue, returning statements back and forward. They argued for so long that their chatter soon sounded like a foreign language to me, and this made me think about siblings. I thought about how odd it is to hear siblings argue, I mean, I knew siblings argued, but not like this. Even Clara Sue would only say things like, "You can't replace Willie," but then she would walk away. I guess Carrie and I had never really argued, and while Chris and Cathy had their arguments, they were about marital issues, such as Chris not helping more around the house.

I knew that if I didn't put an end to their bickering, they would never stop. I immediately jumped into the conversation, and firmly stated, "Hey, stop fighting! Let's get back to the task at hand, let's help Carrie." Chris III looked at me surprised, "You screamed, Momma always said you were a bit of an introvert," he said. "Yes, I know, I feel a bit strange now," I replied. "Okay, look, Leigh's going to portray Angelica Pickles. She was a strung out crack whore who was high 90 percent of the time," Chris III told us. Chris III stopped talking to us and asked Leigh, "Wait, are you Crazy Angelica or Alternate Universe Angelica?" "Crazy Angelica," Leigh quickly responded. "Okay, look, what I am trying to say is that Leigh is portraying a true degenerate, and there is no need to feel asham... I mean Ava is a terrible woman who hurt our Great Leader," Chris III nearly screamed, as he looked around nervously, then looking back at Carrie and I while slightly shaking his head, indicating "No." Feeling paranoid. Chris III got up and walked away to the table where his friends were seated. Leigh, feeling she was no longer mandated to sit with us, got up, and sat with her own friends. I looked over at Carrie, and she seemed to be in a better mood now than she was before. We finished our lunch, and spent the rest of the time conversing about other topics.

After the lunch break was over, I had Mathematics, and finally, my most favorite class, Music and Performance. It was in that class that I felt the most comfortable in. Everyone who had been selected to portray someone was in that class, along with everyone who would play the live music during performances, such as the weekly shows for the "Great Leader." It was in that class that I learned how to use various other instruments. It was also where I learned how to coordinate the rest of the performers, and plan each weekly performance. To put it in simple terms, having that class was amazing experience. It emphasized my love for music, and it gave me the experience to come out of my shell and face the world.


	12. The Hairdo

As soon as the bell rang, completing the school day, everyone rushed out of their classroom. Lines began to form at the all the exit points, the lines were only made longer due to the fact that every student had to kiss the statue's hand when they left the school as well. I waited in line with Carrie, hoping to leave school and return home, when out of nowhere one guard pulled me out of line and took me away. Carrie was quick to respond, and tried to follow me, before being pushed back in line. Another guard held her back, telling her, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, calm down! They only want him, you stay here. Oh, and kiss the statue's hand, or we'll tie you down, put some electrodes to your nipples, and fire it up!" I had heard so many horrible things that by this point I didn't feel surprised by what anyone at this school said.

The guard took me to a room near the end of the school. The room looked like a backstage makeup studio, with mirrors, a styling chair, and a table full of cosmetics and hair care products. Mr. Litman was waiting inside with two other men besides him. The guard took me over to where Mr. Litman was standing, and seated me down in the chair. "Cory, this is Jay and Ethan, they are your personal stylists, Gay stylist if I might add," Mr. Litman said. As I sat there, looking at him, he soon turned around and walked away, leaving me alone with Jay and Ethan.

When Jay and Ethan turned around and looked for different products in a pile of bottles, I tried to escape, but my plan was foiled by the noise of the chair and the reflection in the mirror. They made eye with me, and Ethan made a gesture with his hand indicating he wanted me to sit down. As I sat back in the chair, both men talked with each other over which products to use. Soon after, Ethan came towards me and began to run his fingers in my hair and down to my neck. Jay came soon after and began to do the same as Ethan. Having these two men run their fingers in my hair scares me so much they had to stop and ask why I was shaking. I responded with, "Please, don't take advantage of me. I don't want to be mean, but I know what your kind do to young men."

Ethan the asked, "Your kind? What do you mean by your kind?" "You know, homosexuals," I responded. Both men looked at each other, and began to mumble and pace in opposite directions. Jay took out his phone and called Mr. Litman to ask him one question, could he "Slap the shit out of this little homophobe." Mr. Litman hesitated, but allowed them to do as they wished as long as it wouldn't affect the appearance they agreed to. Jay and Ethan came back and stood in front of me and preceded to slapping me in the cheeks, Jay on the left cheek, and Ethan on the right cheek.

I put both of my hands on my cheeks and tried to massage the red handprints away. Once I realized that the handprints were not going to go away for quite I while, I screamed at jay and Ethan, "Why did you do that?" Ethan responded, "I heard that people like you still existed, but I never expected to meet one in person." I turned at him and asked, "What are you talking about?" "You and your homophobic comments! Why would we ever do such a thing," exclaimed Jay. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry, it won't happened again," I said so I wouldn't have to continue being shunned.

Both Jay and Ethan stopped yelling at me and continued to work on my hair. They leaned me back in the styling chair, Ethan applied some cream on the skin around my hair, soon after Jay applied a paste in my hair. They let the paste sit for a few minutes, and then proceeded to run a comb through my hair, untangling it. They then washed my hair, shampooing and then rinsing it, soon after, they applied another product to my hair. They finished by trimming my hair with some shears, shortening my hair length, and evening some spots.

When they were done, they brought the chair to its proper positon, and I saw my hair in the mirror. I touched my hair, my straight hair. I thought I was going to hate what they were going to do with my hair, but I was quite pleased with the results. Jay looked at me and said, "Yeah, we had to trim the volume down just it a bit or you would have had the Dylann Roof haircut." As I continued to be fascinated by my new haircut and style, I turned over to Jay and Ethan and personally thanked them for what they had done. They returned the compliment and saw me out of the room.

Once I was outside the room, I walked to the exit, and once I made it to the outside the school, I saw no one outside. I thought to myself about how I would get home with no one to take me home, until I saw a man approaching me. He addressed himself as Bruce, and told me he was instructed to take me home. I followed him into a limousine for the student who portrays the "Great Leader" and he drove me home to my family.


	13. Dinner At Hong's

Once we arrived home, Bruce opened the door of the limousine and told me it would be a pleasure driving me around when I needed it. I waved good bye to Bruce as he drove down the street and eventually disappeared from sight. I walked up to the porch and took out the copy of the house key that Chris had given to me. I opened the door to find the house covered in celebratory decorations while everyone stood near the door and screamed "Surprise" as I opened the door. I took a step back when they surprised me, sending me back outside. Garland ran up to me and gave me a hug he must have been practicing ever since he heard the news. Soon after everyone took turns hugging and congratulating me, well everyone but Corrine and Grandmother Olivia. Because, well, why would they congratulate me?

As soon as I came inside, everyone began to ask me about my hair. Carrie began to run her fingers through my smooth hair, then touching hers to see if they felt the same. "It's great you have finally committed to having straight hair, like the rest of us," Chris III said. "Yeah, I find having straight hair makes grooming less of a chore," Chris eagerly said. Since the conversation had steered into hair styles I decided to bring it back to the decorations. "Wow, you did this for me? Thank you," I exclaimed. "Well, you earned it, even though all you did was just stand there, and let some guy pick you," Chris III responded.

I wanted to know what we were going to do to celebrate, that was when Chris easily entertained me. "Well, there's a cake that is ready to eat for desert, but somebody forgot to cook the main meal," Chris said as he smiled and glanced at Cathy. Cathy was quick to respond in the same tone, "Well, unlike some of us who spent their day nearly killing a Central Asian dignitary, I was busy baking the cake, decorating both the cake and the house, and completing all of my original duties such as preparing for my job." Chris was building up a response as Cathy spoke, and responded, "Well, maybe some of us need to realize teaching little girls how to twirl around onstage is not a real job, and preforming an operation is." "Just stop, seriously Chris, just stop. It was funny in the beginning, but now, you're just being an ass," Cathy said to Chris as she looked him in the eye.

Chris stopped his vaguely concealed attacks on Cathy and turned over to everyone, telling us, "I don't think Cory and Carrie are quite ready for Phil's food, but I have great news. I called and I reserved 'The table' for us." "You got 'The Table,' You got 'The Table,'" screamed Garland as he jumped up and down. "Yeah, let's go and eat because I am figuratively starving. I have to say figuratively starving because I have actually experienced starvation, kids," Chris said referencing the attic, as I assume he and Cathy often did.

As we prepared to leave for the restaurant Chris reserved a table for us, Chris III approached Carrie and me with a serious look on his face. He put his hands on our backs, and gave us a serious talk. He looked us sternly in the eye, and said, "Now, since we are going to eat what people from your time would call 'ethnic food,' you cannot embarrass yourselves, and to an extent this family. We are going to a Chinese restaurant, so I do not want you calling them Orientals, Chinamen, or Chinks. The owners are Chinese Americans, Cantonese Chinese Americans originally from Hong Kong to be precise, so don't perpetuate the attitudes from the Racist Ages." I somehow found the courage to ask, "Can I still call them reds?" I saw the anger in Chris III's eyes, and he let out his anger by slapping me in the cheek. "What did I say? What did I say? No, you can't say that, for two reasons. One, that's offensive, and two, it's irrelevant," Chris III said as he shook his head in disappointment.

It was a little less than an hour's drive to the restaurant in the city's Chinatown district. When we walked in, an Asiatic woman in a traditional red dress welcomed us and took us to this table I had heard so much about. At first look, 'The Table' appeared to be nothing special, was until I noticed the details. There were a series of photographs lining the wall next to the table, all photos of Jill. Each photograph had a small plaque containing a description, such as 'Jillian and James on their first date,' 'DeVille-Hong wedding,' and 'President DeVille and President Zhao sign the _Sino-American Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation_.' I wondered to myself why America would sign a treaty with Red China. That was until I realized they didn't. I noticed that each photograph had a date on it, and I saw that the Photograph concerning the treaty occurred in 2057. There was another photograph farther away that showed the lowering of the flag of Red China, and the raising of the flag of Nationalist China in Tiananmen Square. As I noticed the American delegation in the photo, I noticed Jill standing next to the wife of a man who stood next to President Zhao. I assumed Jill was not yet President, and by the time she signed the treaty, China was no longer ruled by the Authoritarian Communist Party.

As I was busy examining the photograph, I barely noticed the waitress placing small plates and pairs of chopsticks. I also did not notice that Corrine was missing until I asked where she had gone. "Someone had to send her to eat with the busboys and waiters," Leigh said referring to Cathy. The waitress returned to "The Table" and took our order. Chris thought it would be a great idea to order a communal dinner, as is customary in Chinese dining culture. When the waitress asked what we wanted to eat, Chris demonstrated his intelligence and ordered our dinner in Cantonese. "Nei ho, ngoh dei jeung yau goh ga ting ge sin sik. Ngoh dei jeung yau yuet choi hoi sin tong, foh chaau soh choi yuet choi chaau faan, gong sik chaau min, siu ngoh, tung yau ja gwai, mng goi," Chris said to the waitress, placing an order.

As the waitress walked away with our order, Leigh faced Chris and asked, "I hope you ordered some General Tso's Chicken, and a bit of Chinese Hot Oil, I like it a bit spicy." "Leigh, first off, General Tso's Chicken isn't authentic Chinese food, and second, Szechuan food is spicy, Cantonese food is fresh and sweet," Chris III said. Leigh was quick to respond, "Well, ehh, Bendin!" Chris III looked at her, laughed, and remarked, "What language is that? Bèndàn is Mandarin for 'Stupid,' and you're not even speaking Mandarin, 'Stupid' in Cantonese is Ban Daan. Ah, gweilo!" In Leigh's defense, even I didn't know half of what Chris III was talking about, but in his eyes, I was just an intolerant individual from the "Racist Ages."


	14. Dinner And A Show

Following about 20 minutes after Chris placed the order, the waiters brought over two bussing carts with our dinner. That placed the Roast Goose right in the center of the Lazy Susan, and placed the smaller dishes around the Goose. We had two porcelain teapots of tea placed on opposite ends of the table, with small porcelain tea cups in front of us, right next to our individual bowls of Cantonese Seafood Soup. Chris offered to serve everyone tea, we held out our small cups and sipped the tea. As soon as the tea touched my tongue, I had its bitter taste in my mouth.

I looked over to Chris III and saw how naturally he drank his tea, not bothered by the taste. There were some sugar packets in a basket next to different bottles of sauces, I grabbed a few, and poured the contents of the packets in my cup. I mixed the sugar with my tea by gently twirling my cup around. I tried the tea, noticing it still did not taste that good. I emptied a few more packets of sugar, twilled it a bit again, and drank the remaining tea, noticing how much more pleasant it tasted now.

I decided to turn my attention to the food, the bowl of Seafood Soup in front of me in particular. We all sipped away the contents of the bowl, and pushed the bowls to the side. We then turned our attention to the different foods set in front of us. I grabbed a plate and began to pour some of the noodles, but right as I was going to begin eating, Chris III interrupting me. "Don't start off by eating anything starchy, it will fill you up faster. Well, these rules are more for Buffet eating, but I guess they still apply here," Chris III said. "You guess? All right," I whispered to myself as I cut off a piece of breast meat and a leg off the Roast Goose.

Once I finished my meat, I decided that I could start eating the "starchy" foods. I covered the noodles that I had previously served myself with some of the Stir Fried Vegetables, and I served myself some of the Stir-fried Rice on the other side of the plate. As I twirled my fork around to collect some noodles, I noticed how carefree Chris III ate his food with those sticks the Chinese eat their food with. What do you call them, Chopsticks? As I thought about how the Chinese act, I couldn't get Chris III calling me a "Racist" out of my head.

We finished the meal with some Youtiao, a kind of fried Chinese bread, using it to eat whatever what left on our plates, and eating the bread without anything on it. After Chris payed for the meal, he thought it would only be appropriate to tell Corrine it was time to return home. I followed Chris to the back of the kitchen were Corrine was in the corner, shooting dice with waiters and cooks. She got off the crate she was sitting on, and brought with her an Oyster Pail. Chris turned to Corrine and asked, "What do you have there?" "My winnings. I lost the $200 dollars I had in an attempt to make more money. All I have to show for it is some Noodles with shrimp," Corrine said disappointed. By the time Corrine finished explaining how she had gotten her food, we had made it back to "The Table," where Cathy saw that Corrine had food. She rushed over to where Corrine was standing, grabbed the Oyster Pail out of her hands, threw it to the floor, and stomped on the contents as she screamed, "No food for you! No food for you! You do not deserve Food!"

Cathy's face turned red with anger with each stomp she threw, letting out all of the anger she had building up over the years against our mother, for what she had done to us. It was at this moment that I truly felt scared of Cathy, I didn't want her to acknowledge me, because I feared that she would release her anger on me. I hid behind Chris III as Chris calmed Cathy down enough so that she wouldn't hurt herself or others. Chris escorted Cathy out first, and soon we followed them, leaving the restaurant, and the scene Cathy created.

Once we arrived home, Cathy calm down enough that Chris let her hold a knife and cut the cake she had baked. It was a Red Velvet cake with Butter Roux icing, and covered in its own bread crumbs. I only ate one slice, because I was still full from the dinner we ate. After eating my slice of cake, I said "Goodnight" to everyone, as I chose to go to sleep early. I was so exhausted from my long day, from being chosen to portray the "Great Leader," to going from class to class, to getting my hair changed, and eating a huge meal, all I wanted to do was sleep.

I went up to my room, took off my uniform, hung the blazer and tie, put all of my used clothes in the hamper, put on my pajamas, and went to sleep. I fell asleep for about an hour until I was awoken by the sound of the door opening, it was Carrie coming into the room. I didn't get up when I was awaken by Carrie, I just laid there, on my bed, wrapped from the bottom half of my head to my feet in a thin sheet. I was covered enough that Carrie didn't notice that I was awake, and I didn't respond when she whispered, "Cory, are you asleep?" I didn't respond because I wanted to know why she wanted to know if I was asleep.

I saw Carrie look over to the door, then over to me, and then to the room in general. She then made the facial expression you make when you say "Why not," and continued with one of the most interesting experiences of my life. She unbuttoned her blazer, and hanged it and her tie in the closet, next to my blazer and tie. It was at that moment I realized she was undressing herself. I knew I shouldn't be watching her undress, it was wrong, or I was violating her privacy, but I just lied there and watched.

After she put her blazer and tie in the closet, she bent over to take her shoes off, exposing her panties under her skirt. She then got up from taking off her shoes, and sat on the bed to take off her nylon stockings. As she threw her stockings to the floor, she got up and began to unbutton her white blouse. She threw the blouse to the floor as well, and continued to unbutton her skirt. For a moment I thought she had noticed that I was watching her undress, because she turned around and looked at my bed, probably to make sure I was asleep. I made sure to shut my eyes as quickly as possible to keep her from discovering I was peering at her.

About half a minute later, I slowly opened my eyes to check if she was still looking in my direction. What I saw was Carrie rummaging through her drawers, wearing only her white panties and brassiere. She pulled her nightwear out of the drawers, a pink camisole and pajama bloomers, and looked back to see if I was asleep. I knew that she would only turn back to check if I was sleeping if she was going to undress, and I was right. She faced the opposite direction, giving me her back, as she took off her panties, exposing her firm round buttocks. I didn't get to enjoy them for long, as she quickly pulled up her pajama bloomers. She had turned around to retrieve her camisole she placed on her bed, but only turned half ways this time around. I saw Carrie standing, seeing only the left portion of her body, unhooking her brassiere, releasing her breasts.

I could no longer hold in my erection, I slowly separated my thighs to let out my erect penis from between my legs. This was the first time I ever truly experienced having my genitalia expand right in front of me. When I was partially paralyzed, I would only know my penis was erect if I looked at it. Also, it was the first time I truly experienced an erection without being in some sort of transitive state, like the incident in the shower a couple of weeks ago. The image of Carrie's beautiful firm breasts, with the nipples placed right in the middle, changed the way I looked at her. She was now a woman, and I was a scrawny, gawky kid, or at least I felt like a kid compared to her, having to spy on my twin sister to experience my first sexual encounter with another person.

Carrie soon put on her camisole, picked up all her clothes of the floor, and threw them in the hamper. She turned off the lights, walked over to the bed, pulled up the sheets, and nestled herself in her bed. I looked over at Carrie and saw that her eyes were close, giving me the opportunity to adjust myself, since I feared moving while she undressed would reveal me. My erection had begun to reduce since Carrie got in her bed, but the emotions still lingered. I decided to address my emotions by getting one of my pillows and rapping my arms around it.

I fell asleep projecting all my emotions and desires onto my pillow, that was until I was awaken by heavy breathing and moaning. I wondered from where the noises were coming from until I heard Chris impulsively scream, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" It was those words that cleared up what was occurring, and according to Leigh, what they were doing was still their "standard sex." I grabbed the pillow my head was laid on, bent it halfways over my head to try to filter out at least some of the noise coming from Chris and Cathy's bedroom, and tried to fall sleep again.


	15. First Performance

I spent the following three days preparing for my first performance. I worked with my fellow students in my Music and Performance class to craft the choreography and the lyrics for the songs. I took a lot of the work home with me, because even though I had many assistants, I wanted to feel as if I was a part of something larger than myself. I got advice from Cathy when it came to the choreography, and Leigh even sat down next to me and gave me the lyrics she wanted to sing. "I missed 1993 and 94. I was high! I was high on LSD. Phil's got a very small D. Very small. Okay!" When I asked her where she got the inspiration for those lyrics, she responded, "I got them from one of the oldies Chris listens to. You know, all those songs from the 2010's." "Well, you should know more about all that old crap that douches like my brother listen to more than me," she said before getting up and walking away.

Friday came much sooner than I expected, and I was worried that the presentation would not go as planned. It was 1:00 PM, and the performers from all of the other schools with younger students arrived. Their advisors worked with mine to coordinate each performance correctly. I, like all the other performers, was in wardrobe, changing into my costume right after coming out of my makeup session. Soon after I was ready, I saw Carrie pass by, she looked so disheveled.

I stopped her and asked her why she looked like this. "They told me I had to look like this," she said as she pouted and looked down to the ground. I tried to make her felt better bringing up her head, and telling her, "Hey, it's okay. Look at me, I'm in a tight suit, there were an ungodly number of products used on my hair, and I probably have the most amount of makeup on than anyone else." "Rather fruity, huh," she said as she smiled. "Yeah, well don't let the hair stylists hear you speak like that. They'll get offended and slap you, I should know," I warned her. We both stared at each other, smiling, until one of the stage directors called her over to her group.

I stood there watching Carrie walk away until Park Seon-Hui walked up to me, and told me to come with her. Seon-Hui was a student from Korea whose parents send her to school in America. Since she was of Asiatic decent, she had been chosen to portray the Great Leader's wife, Stephanie. Nobody objected more to this than Chris III did. "How can a full blooded Korean portray a half Caucasian half Han Chinese individual?! The cultural and racial sensibilities of whoever choses which student portrays who is so negligible," he yapped about for the whole week.

Seon-Hui walked up to me, and said in that Korean accent of hers, "You know, my family is from North Hamgyong Province. You no say something about former Democratic People's Republic of Korea?" I turned around to face her and said, "No, I'm not. I am trying to adjust to a new world, one very different from mine. Besides, I can just feel my nephew judging every though I have, just because it's 'Racist' or 'Politically incorrect' in his eyes." "Ah, you learning. Very good," Seon-Hui said, congratulating me on my new initiative which I knew I would eventually break.

I walked around the crowd of performers, admiring their costumes. I never walked up to a group of people and began conversing with them, I was too shy. I would only talk to people I didn't know if they talked to me first, unlike Carrie. She had the natural ability to say what she thought when she wanted with whomever she wanted. Even though Leigh and her friends teased Carrie, she had her own group of friends. I had heard from Chris and Cathy that she was extremely depressed when she thought I was dead, but she had returned to her normal self when she knew her "Other half" was alive and well. Now that Carrie had regained the personality to socialize with others outside the family, I didn't want to hold her back, but sometimes I just couldn't wait to get home and spend all my time with her.

As I stood in the crowd, an alarm sounded, indicating that the "Great Leader" had arrived. Everyone rushed behind the stage and organized themselves in the order they would appear in. Since I was the lead role, I got to be at the front of my group. I had the one of the best spots to see the "Great Leader" enter. I heard one of the guards announce the arrival of the "Great Leader," I saw him and his entourage enter through the left. Everyone in the locale began to applaud, burst into cheers, and saluted him as he entered.

The younger children from the other schools preformed before we did. Their performances glorified the "Great Leader's" younger days, the age of the performers reflected how old the "Great Leader" was during the time the event portrayed actually occurred. Their advisors knew that I could play the Banjo, and they asked me to write a song to be played with a Banjo for a quick scene in a performance, a song for a world leader at the time, Petro Poroshenko. Since Poroshenko was over 50 when the scene in the performance occurred in real life, a student from our school went into makeup, and preformed the song. "We've got a right to fight back against Russia, and if Vladimir Putin want's to annex Ukraine, he'd better bite my ass!" Luckily, Chris III helped me write with "era-appropriate" language to make the song a bit comedic.

Soon after the younger students finished their performance, it was our turn. I felt my heart pounding, and my palms sweating, the only way I could calm my stage fright was by sucking on some sugar cubes I had filled my pockets with. Chris III said that ingesting sugar would only complicate things even further, but my options were running low. I knew I had to preform, I couldn't just coward in the back. What would the people think? What would the "Great leader" think? What would Carrie think? I inhaled the biggest breath in my life, notified my fellow performers with a hand gesture that we were going to commence the performance, and ran out to the stage.

Once I was on the stage, it just took time for me to adjust to being the center of attention. The fear on making a fool out of myself was what kept me going, and when the adrenaline ran out, I relied on another sugar cube. I would go near the back end of the stage and suck on sugar cubes so the audience would not see me take in sugar to calm down. For the remaining time, we finished with our performance. I had so much fun singing and dancing, but I did not enjoy the ending, when Seon-Hui and I had to topple Carrie over, and strike her with clubs. I knew the clubs were made of plastic, but I couldn't bring myself to hurt Carrie. I tried to make my swings seem real, but I still had to close my eyes and imagine someone like Corrine to go through with it. I don't know if my swings looked real, but I know Seon-Hui's sure were. She conveyed true anger in her performance, and I believe that the standing ovation we received after that final scene was because of her acting.

It only seemed fair to help Carrie get off the floor, I put my hand out, and she took it, helping her get up. Everyone who was a part of our performance lined up on stage and took a bow during out standing ovation. As we got up from our bow, I was able to identify the "Great Leader" in the audience. He stood there clapping his hands, wearing sunglasses. I could not tell whether he was pleaded or disappointed, although he did nod his head as he clapped. I truly felt proud of myself, I knew Grandmother Olivia would disapprove of my pride, but that made the moment even more special.


	16. Meet The Great Leader

After the performance, I walked off backstage, removed my costume and the load of makeup off my face. I changed back into my school uniform, walked outside, and waited for Carrie to exit the dressing rooms. She walked out of the dressing rooms adjusting her uniform to feel more comfortable, and we walked together as we were trying to leave the campus. We didn't talk much, but we both new how proud we were of our performances. I wrapped my left arm around her shoulder, bringing her closer to me. She leaned her head in a little to the right, nearly resting it on my shoulder. I felt her hair rubbing against the lower part of my left cheek as we walked to the nearest exit.

As we walked down the hallway together, we were interrupted by Bruce, who came in from the adjacent right corner. "There you are, Cory. Mr. Litman requests your presence at a special dinner," he said as he guided me to the left. He separated Carrie and me, but she tried to follow us, that was until Bruce turned around to her and said, "I'm sorry, this is a private dinner, just for Cory. Go along. "I didn't want to leave Carrie again for some private session again, I asked Bruce if I could bring a guest, to which he replied, "Sorry, Mr. Litman specified just you."

Bruce and I continued walking down the left hallway as Carrie continued towards the exit, with her head down. We took some turns until we reached a helipad with a helicopter. I pointed to the helicopter as we got closer to it and asked Bruce, "Are we flying in that?" "Yeah, get in," he said as he searched his pockets for keys. The interior of the helicopter was actually quite luxurious. It had leather seats, a desk, one of those little refrigerators Grandmother Olivia's robotic body was made out of, and other things. As I sat in one of the seats and began to fasten my seatbelt, Bruce followed me inside, closed the door, and jumped into the cockpit.

Bruce turned around towards me, and asked, "Have you ever been in a helicopter before?" "No, no I haven't," I responded. He then asked, "You scared?" "A little bit. I don't know what to expect," I said. "Well, don't worry, you're safe in here. Flight should only be about 10 minutes", Bruce said as he began to turn on the helicopter. I heard the noise of the rotor turn on, but it eventually faded away as the helicopter got off the ground. After the first seconds of the helicopter lifting off the ground, I grabbed onto the armrest for safety as Bruce laughed, looking back at me. I eventually let go of the armrests as I got accustomed to seeing the world from above.

From the window of the helicopter, I could see all the students exiting the school, they looked like ants leaving the colony. The aerial view of the school eventually turned to one of the city. I could see all of the roofs of the buildings, and the roads full of cars, we even flew next to the tall high-rises, I could see the reflection of the helicopter in the glass walls. Eventually we had arrived at the Great Leader's home, Bruce found an empty helipad, and made a quick landing. As soon as we were on the ground, the door had been opened from the inside, and a nicely dressed man got onboard and guided me off the helicopter. We boarded a small cart parked right next to the helicopter, and rode it until we reached an entrance.

Once we arrived at an entrance, we stepped off the cart, and I entered the luxurious mansion. We walked down nicely decorated hallways, and went up the staircase to the second floor. The man directed me all the way to one room, where he said before opening the door, "Welcome to Mr. Litman's study room." When he opened the door, I could see another well decorated room, but I also saw a tall, suited man on the balcony, observing everything that was outside. The man stood behind me, outside in the hallway as he called out, "Mr. Litman, Cory Dollanganger has arrived."

With that call, the tall man turned around, smoking a Cuban cigar, and relieved the man of his duties for the day. The man approached me, still smoking his cigar, he looked at me and said, "Well, Evan can sure pick them out, but it just had to be a Dollanganger." He walked passed me and headed right out the door into the hallway. He turned around and asked, "Aren't you coming?" "Oh, yes, right way Great Leader," I said frantically. He turned around, and laughed, "There's no need for that here, just call me Matthew." "Oh, yes, of course," I said following him.

As we walked down the hallway, Matthew gave me a tour of his vast estate. I don't know how long the tour lasted, but it lasted long enough until dinner. He guided me to the dining hall, and sat me in the guest of honor's seat. Soon after we sat down, the rest of the residents came down for dinner. To my right, Mr. Riley Litman sat, having a view of everyone at the table. I front of me sat Kc Litman, Riley's wife, and Matthew's mother. Matthew sat to the left of me, and his wife Stephanie sat to the left of him. Their three grown children sat to the left of their mother. To the right of Kc, Sam Hirsh, Stephanie's father, sat alongside his wife Jackie to his right. To the right of Jackie sat Zack Burke, his wife and his daughter, his son in law, and his granddaughter.

The servers came out rather quickly, and preceded to serve the first course of our five course meal. As we finished the Hors d'oeuvres placed in front of us, and the servers brought us bowls of Creamy Chicken Tortellini soup, the table emerged in dinner conversation. Riley looked over at his son, Matthew, and asked, "So, Matthew, have you made a decision on your bid?" "Yes, I have decided to run," Matthew politely responded. Sam looked up from his soup and looked towards Matthew, and said "I think it's a bad idea, you won't be able to win against a popular incumbent president. It's going to be an embarrassing defeat, Matthew." Matthew's face turned grim as he looked Sam in the eyes and said, "It's going to be a tough fight because of you. You unleashed her, you chose that first term socialist senator as your vice president, now she's got the populace begging her and her commie goons to take away all their money."

I decided that I could jump into the conversation, and speak my mind without being demeaned by Chris III, and said "Yeah, I hate communists." Sam turned over from Matthew to me and asked a simple question, "Why?" "Well, because, you know, they want to bomb us," was the only thing I could think of at the moment. Matthew turned over to me and put his arm on my back and patted it, "You know, that's the one thing I like about you Dollangangers, you come from a simpler time. A time when Rich White Americans had all of the power, instead of just the majority of the power." I was so proud of myself for being able to speak my mind and not be judged, that I nearly didn't notice the servers serving the salad.

The debate continued far into the meal, and even when the servers brought us our Filet Mignon, the arguing had not yet ceased. As I finished my steak, I decided to ask a question that I had asked many times but had not been given an answer. I turned over to Mr. Riley Litman and asked, "Mr. Litman, I have a question, why did you free Corrine?" He put down his fork and steak knife, faced me, and said, "Because it pisses Phil, Lil, Jill, all of New Incestatopia, and Chris off!" "Well, it actually makes Cathy much more angry than Chris, I don't want to go too far as to say that he's glad she's back in his life, but he's not mad," I was quick to point out. Riley turned away, faced the rest of the table, and exclaimed, "Well, I got one of them wrong, but I was close, it's actually Chris's disgusting Swife!"

I was confused at what Riley had said, I had to interject, "Why did you call Cathy disgusting, and what is a Swife?" "Well, to answer your second question first, a Swife is a cross between a sister and a wife. I believe that clears up your first question as well." At that moment I realized that Riley did not approve of Chris and Cathy's relationship, but I didn't want to create controversy, so I directed the conversation back to Corrine. "Why did you free Corrine? She nearly killed me and my sibling," I nearly screamed at Riley's face. "Watch it boy! You don't want to mess with me, or any of us. I got you out of your wheelchair, I can easily get you back in it," he said as he leaned in closer to me. As I felt Riley's breathe on my face, his wife Kc joined the conversation. "Don't scare the boy, you know why you helped him," she said, pulling her husband back. "Fine, I guess I helped you because I couldn't be here if it wasn't for you," he gently whispered as he drank from his wine glass.

The servers brought us each a sundae glass full of chocolate Mousse as the conversation calmed down. I ate my Mousse as Kc said she did not agree with her husband's decision to let Corrine go. "She gave up the love of her children for money, no real mother would ever do that. She must be punished for what she did. Unfortunately, that's not the world we live in," she said as she looked down at her sundae glass. Matthew finished his Mousse and got out of his chair. He excused him and me, and he took me walking outside of the mansion. I was glad that Matthew took me out of that troublesome situation, it seems that it doesn't matter who I speak to, because they always disagree with what I say.


	17. The Great Leader's Gift

We walked following the sides of the mansion walls, he asked me if I "wanted to see something cool?" I answered with a simple, "Yes." He took me to what looked like a hangar from the outside, he stuck his thumb on a panel, and the door opened. As we walked inside, the lights turned on by themselves, lighting the planes parked next to the main hangar door, but the hangar went much lower than that. We walked down a flight of stairs to reach the bottom floor, it was a secret room as luxurious and modern as the mansion. There was a floor lift from the secret room to the where the planes were stationed for all of the cars. Matthew had a wide arrange of classic and modern cars, most of them European sport cars, all of them kept nicely cleaned. He also had a basketball court, an empty space reserved for dancing, and a fully stocked bar.

We sat on the stools at the bar, and Matthew ordered the bartender to prepared two drinks. We were each served a drink, Matthew grabbed his glass and began to drink his. I wasn't sure if I wanted to drink mine, I was underage after all. Matthew noticed that I hadn't drank, so he started chanting for me to drink. I am very susceptible to peer pressure, so I grabbed the glass, and poured the liquid into my mouth. The aftertaste of the alcohol burned the back of my throat, but at least I had made Matthew proud, right? "There you go, it's okay," he said as he patted my back. I coughed as I adjusted to the alcohol passing through me, I felt rather nauseous, but I also felt much more comfortable, comfortable enough to ask Matthew why he had invited me to dinner. He turned over to face me, and said, "Well, I think it's important to get to know my performer. Also, I think you of all people need guidance in this world. That's why I've chosen to give you this."

He searched the pockets inside his jacket, and pulled out a book. A real, printed book, not like those devil "eBooks" that make up the contemporary collection of books for everyday people. Matthew handed me the book, and as he put his finger on it, he said, "This book is really important, to me, and to all of society. It is the autobiography of a great man, this edition is extra special, and it contains excerpts from his diary as well to correspond with his writing. You're going to read this book eventually for English, but it's worth reading this book in advance. This is the autobiography of a true friend, he was like a second father to me. This is the autobiography of William Anderson."

"William Anderson," I said, "I have not heard off him." Matthew looked a bit irritated when I said I did not know who William Anderson was, but he responded with, "Well, now you do. Read this book, learn from William." Matthew got really passionate when he spoke about William, he turned over and grabbed a picture frame with a photograph inside, and said, "I wish you were still alive, you could really help me in these difficult times right now." He handed me the picture frame, and inside was a photograph of an elderly man in a wheelchair with a blond child of about five years old with a stern look on his face sitting on the man's lap. "That's me," Matthew said as he pointed to the child.

I wondered why Matthew looked so serious in the photograph, was he always that serious? Matthew took away the picture frame when I was done with it, and he handed me an envelope as we exchanged items. The only other time I saw a letter written in actual paper, it was bad news for Carrie. I asked what was inside the letter, and Matthew responded, "It's for your mother, give it to her." I looked at him with a confused look on my face, and asked, "Cathy? Are you apologizing to Cathy?" "What? No! Why? For you mother, Corrine, give this letter to her," he said in a patronizing fashion. I looked at the envelope, wondering how I was going to give it to Corrine. I mean, I knew I would just walk over to her and hand her the letter, but it was much more complicated than that, she did try to kill me. Would I say anything? What if she said something to me? Would it be quick or will I take my time?

I put the letter in the pocket inside my jacket, next to the book. Matthew got up from the stool, and wiped away all of the remaining tears from his face. He turned around, faced me, and said, "Now, now we celebrate!" "Now," I said, "I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that." "Ah, don't worry about it. You did just take the largest dose of Ecstasy I could find in a single pill," Matthew said. I didn't know what he was talking about, I was scared though, the only thing I could do was scream, "What!" Matthew, looking confused said, "Oh, wait, I might have given you a pill from the wrong container. I'm pretty sure I used the right pill, but just in case, sorry if I Bill Cosbyed you." I didn't know what was going on, I felt so scared that I felt my heart race much faster, but eventually I started to feel much more relaxed and focused. I saw Matthew's mouth move, as if he was speaking, and he clapped his hands rapidly, as if signaling someone. Following his claps, a group of women wearing nothing but their high-heeled shoes and some lingerie came out of a door the side of the room. My senses were so heightened that I could hear Matthew whisper into my ear, "Portraying the 'Great Leader' has its perks, doesn't it."

The details of what happened after are a bit vague. I recollect dancing with the women as Matthew sprayed Champagne on them in a dark room with colorful lights all around as Matthew played some of that 2010's music Chris III is so fond of. At one moment, I remember three women dancing with me with their arms wrapped around me and my head in between their large bosoms, and the next moment I was back home in the bathroom, vomiting into the toilet. I would fall to the floor when I thought it was over. Luckily, Carrie was there to push me back up so I could vomit into the toilet, and not choke on my own vomit. Carrie wet a clump of toilet paper and washed my mouth with it.

When she went over to the toilet to throw away the dirty paper she noticed something floating in the toilet that caught her attention. She was much braver than me when it came to getting dirty, she threw the paper in the toilet, and pulled out what got her attention. She washed it off in the sink, and I noticed it was a half-dissolved pill. She asked what the pill was doing in my system, and I could simply not answer. Leigh heard us argue and came in. Her face completely changed when she saw the pill in Carrie's hand. "Ah, it's my little magic party pill," she said before taking the pill out of Carrie's hand and swallowing it. She turned over to me and asked, "How long till it kicks in?" I was so exhausted, I just looked at her and said, "I don't know." She brought her eyes up from me and walked away while she said, "Well, I'll sure be playing a game of Russian Roulette tonight."


	18. Reading The Book

Carrie accompanied me to our room, she laid me down on my bed, and went to the drawers to get my pajamas. She came over to me with my pajamas, she took of my blazer, unfastened my tie, and unbuttoned my shirt. I don't know why, but I got the urge to stand up and take off my pants. With my pants at my knees, Carrie, in shock, backed away from me. "I was just unbuttoning your shirt, I was going to give you some privacy to undress," she said as she backed away and walked outside to the hallway. When she closed the door, I grabbed my head with my two hands, and shook it. How could I have been so abrupt, so stupid? I changed into the pajamas Carrie had laid out on my bed, and called Carrie back into our room. She approached me slowly, but I came in close and said, "I'm sorry for how I acted, I don't know what came over me." "It's okay. I guess things like this happen. And, well, at least you can walk by yourself now," she said as I had my arms around her.

I sat at the front of my bed, and as Carrie pulled out her clothes, she also grabbed by blazer. She was about to hang it when she noticed there was something in the inside pocket. She pulled out the contents, and noticed the envelope first. "A letter, for Momma. Who gave this to you? I want to know," she said. I looked at her, took the envelope from her hand, and said, "First off, don't call her 'Momma,' she's nothing to us now. Call Cathy 'Momma,' it's much more suiting. And second of all, Matthew, the 'Great Leader' gave it to me, he wants me to give it to Corrine." "I should probably do so," I said as I walked out of our room and walked downstairs to the guest room where Chris had got Cathy to agree to let Corrine sleep.

Inside Corrine's room, she sat at the front of the bed, while Leigh sat at the foot of the bed. Before I entered, Carrie grabbed the envelope from my hand, and went into the room first. She walked over to where Corrine was seated, handed her the envelope, and said in her sweet voice, "Here Momma, this is for you." Corrine grabbed the envelope from her, looked at it, and replied with, "It's not open. Where's the letter opener?" Carrie, not wanting to displease Corrine anymore, took the envelope and opened it with her fingers. She handed the letter inside the envelope to Corrine as she laid back in bed and began to read the letter. Corrine began to make faint noises indicating she was pleased with the content in the letter. As she continued reading, she called out, "My girl, come over here." When Carrie heard those words, she rushed over to Corrine's side, only to be pushed way, and receive the response, "No, not you. Leigh, get over here."

As Leigh got closer, Carrie began to back away, trying to hold in her tears. After she shut the door to Corrine's room, she ran all the way to our room with her hands covering her face. I stood out my hand as she ran away, but something in me just didn't find it worthwhile to go after her. I walked into the kitchen and poured myself a cup of orange juice. Chris III was also in the kitchen, and he had seen Carrie run upstairs crying. We began talking about Corrine's mental abuse, and Chris III made sure to point out, "Yeah, it's sad when someone doesn't feel loved by their mother. Sometimes they try to find love and comfort from other things." When those words came out of Chris III's mouth, out came Leigh from Corrine's room, dancing, looking dizzy, making 'woo' noises, and waving her hands as if she was a cat playing with yarn. Chris III stopped looking at me, refilled his cup with water, and followed Leigh around while he told her, "Come on Leigh, sit down. At least drink this water so you don't dehydrate like last time."

Since Chris III was busy trying to subdue Leigh, I decided it was time to retire upstairs. When I got to mine and Carrie's room, I had noticed that she was not inside. What I did notice was that the book Matthew had given to me was still on Carrie's bed. I grabbed it off the edge of the bed, and placed it on the table separating the beds while I pulled off the sheets and jumped into bed. I wasn't tired, so I decided I would take a look at the book. When I bent over to grab the book, Carrie walked in, already wearing her nightwear, and looking a bit less sad. She asked what I was reading, and I told her it was a book Matthew gave to me, and that we would be reading it in school. She wanted to know more about it, so I invited her to read it with me. She walked over to the left side of the bed, got in bed with me, wrapped her arms around me, laid her head my chest, and said to turn to the first page. I tried to savor the moment for as long as I could, I even laid my head on hers before she grew a bit impatient with me.

I opened the book and turned it to the first page, it read, "Dedicated to my loving wife, my wonderful children, and my siblings, wherever they are." "Ah, how sweet," Carrie said. I turned the pages until I got to the first page of the first chapter. It read,

"My life story begins in some suburb in Pennsylvania. Gladstone was what my birth certificate said. What can I say about my early childhood that isn't a total cliché? Nothing much really. Plus, to be honest, I don't remember much of it anyways, and what I do remember would probably open up a cold case investigation. Why waste taxpayer dollars on a case where the perpetrators are already dead? Anyways, after some 'family issues,' I guess you could call them that, got out of hand, I found myself living with a new family in Prescott, Virginia. In a way, they are my real family, if only the other part of me would agree."

Carrie looked up from the book first, turned to look at me, and asked, "Weren't we born in Gladstone?" "The name does sound familiar," I responded. She continued to point out the similarities between my life and the life of this William Anderson. We continued reading in curiosity until we reached a sentence in which the narrator refers to himself as William Arnold. Carrie pointed at me, scared and saying, "You, you are William Arnold." At that moment, we realized we had to examine the evidence, there were far too many similarities for it to be coincidence. We jumped ahead in the book to a set of pages with photographs. At first sight of a photograph of a child in a wheelchair, I knew that I was the child in the photo. I was William Anderson.

I turned to Carrie and asked, "Would Matthew give me this book because it's about me?" "Maybe, you told me he used to idolize him. If he begins to idolize you, you will know if he knows," she said. This all came as a surprise that I didn't continue reading, but Carrie and I continued looking at the photographs. I vaguely remembered many of the events from my first day with Grandpa Arnold, and I stopped remembering at the young adult life. Since I parted ways with the Arnold's at age 15, the photos of William's high school graduation, or of his 18th birthday and on didn't look familiar to me. I tried to make sense of the remaining photos especially the one of William Anderson's wedding.

I remembered the face of the man standing to the left of William, it was Marvin West, the psychiatrist who helped me during the dark moments of my life. I turned my attention to the bride, something felt odd about her. Carrie was quick to point at the tagline under the photo, it read, "Wedding of William Anderson and Clara Sue Sanders, 1979." I had a surprised look on my face as I tried to comprehend this information, and I asked myself, "Clara Sue and I, married?!" As soon as Carrie realized what happened, she turned her head and said jokingly, "I guess really, really loving your sister does run in the family." I didn't really want to continue reading this book, especially when I read a line from William's diary, something you could only find in this special edition copy, and for a good reason, describing his passionate sex with Clara Sue. Even though I didn't want to continue, Carrie did. We agreed that we would finish the first chapter, and then we would go to sleep.

As we continued reading, we heard the noise of a screeching car enter the driveway. We stared up from the book when we heard the front door open and be slammed shut. As footsteps climbed the stairs, and the sound of someone drinking became evident, Chis screamed from the top of his lungs, "Cathy, I'm home, I'm drunk, and I'm horny!" The footsteps got closer to our room, and Chris flung open our door. He stood right at the frame of the door, unbuttoning his belt, until he realized he was in the wrong room. He didn't know where he was, so he blabbed out what must have been the place he associated with not knowing where he was, "Is this the past? Is this the attic? I don't remember Cathy being that fat and I don't remember myself being such a scrawny little bitch."

We'd never heard Chris use such language, and it really hurt. I was the one to point out that he was still home, it was just that he came into our room. He stood there, staring at us with curiosity, he had to ask, "Why are you in the same bed?" "We're just reading a book together," I said. He looked back at us and nodded as he walked away, but for some reason he turned around and came back to the door and said, "Also, get ready for tomorrow, you're going to go pick up some papers so you two can get registered." I looked at Carrie then back to Chris, and asked, "Registered? Registered for what?" "You know, government stuff," he said with his eyes closed, flapping his hand in the air, and nearly falling down.

Chris regained some of his equilibrium and trudged to his own bedroom. We heard the door to his room open, and he took a few more steps. He called out Cathy for not being "undressed yet," he then plopped into his bed and began to snore. I looked back at Carrie, and we continued reading. I had her wrapped in between my arms for the rest of the chapter, until we decided it was time to go to sleep. I put the book on the table, and she went over to close the door. She turned off the lights, and walked over to her bed. She said "Goodnight," and I said "Goodnight" as well as I shut my eyes and went to sleep.


	19. Justice Is Served

I woke up quite early the following day, and so did most of the family as well. We ate our breakfast half awake, especially Cathy, who probably didn't get enough sleep because of Chris's snoring. Yet, her attention went from less than half to more than usual when Corrine walked in. She walked over to where the food was, while holding a megaphone Leigh had brought to her at her request. Cathy looked at her and asked, "What do you think you're doing?" "Eating before I ruin your life," Corrine responded. Cathy, completely confused, got up from her chair, and began to take away the food Corrine had already served herself.

As Cathy took away the plate, Corrine looked back at her, laughing, and shaking her head back and forward. She leaned into Cathy and said, "So, you think you have the perfect life? The perfect family. Everyone thinks you're so amazing. You think you can control me? Well, no you can't. Oh, how ironic is it that with just one piece of information, your entire life could fall apart. Your friends will shun you. Your children will be taken away from you. And, above all, your marriage will be exposed, and come crumbling down. The police are on their way, and I think it will be your neighbors to learn the Dollanganger family's dirty little secret first."

The atmosphere in the room was really tense, and for no reason, Chris, with his head buried in his arms, screams, "Ah, God, can't you be quieter! I will never drink like that again, on that same date, and when the moon phase and the temperature are also the same." Cathy tuned to look at him with a straight face and said, "So, never." "Yeah, pretty much," Chris replied. In pain from his hangover, he called out to Chris III, "How's that spicy Mexican gut soup coming along?" "The Menudo is almost done. This is why I always keep a container of it in the freezer," Chris III said rather proud of himself.

Corrine ran out of the kitchen, and out of the front door. We all followed her outside, just to see what she would do. She switched on the megaphone, and began screaming into it. I don't know how many of the neighbors were asleep at the time, but when they looked out of their windows, I could see just how mad they were. Corrine got closer to the sidewalk, and began to expose Chris and Cathy's "secret." "Residents of, whatever street this is, it doesn't matter that I don't know the name. You all think the family in this house is so perfect, don't you," Corrine claimed. All of a sudden, a voice of a man screamed out, "No their not, Chris never returned my hedge trimmer!" "Yes I did! I'm told you, check your garage," Chris yelled only to cause him more pain.

Corrine continued to walk up and down, slandering the family, "The woman deprives me of food, and other basic necessities, but since I am such a humble person, I will not hold that as evidence against her!" Another voice, one with an East Asian accent came from a house, two houses down across the street, "Chris, silence your mother! I read ending of 'Petals on the Wind,' she crazy!" At this point, Chris was in too much pain to respond. Corrine continued to spur out anything she considered scandalous against Cathy, all building up to her Pièce de Résistance of slanders.

"Now, you've probably wondered why the entire family looks alike, well, except for the younger boy, I don't know where he gets it from. It's almost as if they are all related, not just as husband, wife, and children, but something more. Prepare yourselves, because the truth is that Christopher and Catherine Dollanganger are not just husband and wife, but they are my children. They are siblings! Brother and sister birthed by me, I don't know why I said it as if proud of that, but that is the truth," Corrine said, finishing her speech.

My heart was pounding so fast, I thought this would be the end of the family. The police would arrive soon, and Corrine or one of the neighbors would tell them the story. Chris and Cathy would be arrested, and the children would be separated from their parents, and even possibly from each other, or even worse, I would be separated from Carrie. As Corrine stood proud of her deed, the neighbor right across the street stuck his head out the window, and screamed, "Yeah, and the release of nonrenewable energy sources for nearly two hundred years has diminished the ozone layer so much it can no longer be repaired, melting in the polar ice caps, and leading to the eventual flooding of our city. These are things we know!"

Corrine stopped in her tracks, turned to look at the man, and screamed, "What?!" All of a sudden, the entire neighborhood seemed to spur out all different words signifying that they agreed with him. One neighbor even claimed, "Yeah, marrying or doing your sister, that shit's not illegal in California!" I stood in the back of the crowd, thinking two things, one, wow, I was in California, and two, it's not illegal to marry or "do" your sister now. Obviously, the news affected me less than it did for Corrine, who was in such a state of denial. She dropped the megaphone, put her hands on her face, and kept whispering to herself about why Incest was acceptable now.

Eventually, the police that Corrine had called for arrived. They asked what seemed to be the problem, but Corrine had nothing to say, since nothing illegal occurred. Out of nowhere, the entire neighborhood claimed that Corrine had been a nuance, and that she had been disturbing the peace. Sensing that the entire neighborhood was telling the truth, the officers did not take any statements, they handcuffed Corrine, and dragged her into their car as she kicked and screamed. Cathy, as usual, began to laugh sadistically, even though Corrine had done me great harm, it didn't feel right to laugh at her misfortunes. Well, maybe not as much as Cathy did.

As the car drew away, and Corrine begged her help, Leigh promised to set her free. What she did next did not surprise me, but it sure did amuse me. She straightened out her ridiculously short shorts she slept in, and perked up her breasts by putting her crossed arms under them, exposing them even more through her small shirt. She then walked over to Chris, leaned in, puckered her lips, opened her eyes to give off a comforting look, and said in a sweet voice I had not yet heard her speak in, "Daddy, can I have some money? Don't make me beg, I know you don't want your little girl to be sad." Chris, still visibly in pain, just said with his head buried in his hands, "You know what Leigh, I don't want to deal with you right now." Chris went back into the house, and everyone followed him back in. I couldn't help but laugh at how much of a fool Leigh made herself look like. Unfortunately, she heard me laugh, and guessing I was laughing at her, she hit me upside the head before pushing me out of the way so she could enter the house before me.


	20. At The DeVille's Home

Carrie and I went upstairs to brush our teeth. We brushed them at the same time in the same bathroom, I guess it was a way of defying the Grandmother, who, during out time in the attic, made it clear that boys and girls were not to use the bathroom at the same time. Things were also a lot more lenient in this household as well. I remember one time I walked into the bathroom while Leigh was getting herself ready, but what was strange was that Chris III was asleep on the toilet, with his pants to his ankles, exposing, well, everything. I asked Leigh if it bothered her to look at her brother's genitals, she looked at the reflection in the mirror, looked back up, and said while staring straightforward, "Eh, it's nothing I haven't already seen."

I went back to our room and got my clothes while Carrie was combing her hair. When I returned to the restroom, she left for our room to change over there. Come to think of it, I don't know why I didn't change in our room. After I changed, I dropped off my pajamas in the basket and headed for our room. Carrie walked out as I got to the door and we walked down the stairs together. In the living room, Cathy sat on the couch as Chris's head laid on her thighs. Chris III finished washing the pot and the bowl in which he served his father the spicy soup that cured him of his hangover, but left his mouth inflamed. Cathy noticed all of the sweat coming from his head, and now on her clothes, she got up to get a small towel to dry him.

We went over to Chris, and asked him when we were going to go pick up the papers. He stared at the ceiling and said, "I knew I would wake up like this, so you two have to go and get them. Christopher, come and tell them how to get to the DeVille's house!" Chris III approached us, and told us how to get to this DeVille house. We would walk to the end of the block, make a few turns, cross a few streets, and we would find it. We drank some water before embarking on our journey through the suburbs, it was our first time exploring the world with just ourselves.

Carrie and I walked through the neighborhood, watching a lot of people leaving for what I assumed was work. We tried following Chris III's directions, but we got lost at some point. "Why didn't you make a note of it? Can't you look up directions in those phones? I think you can," Carrie claimed. I responded quickly with, "We both know you and I can barely use these devil phones. If they're phones, then there is no need for it to display maps! Also, why does it have a camera? It's total lunacy!" As I kept expressing my anger at whomever came up with the idea of combing a phone with a map, a camera, a compass, a television, and other things that should just be separate things, Carrie interrupted me, saying, "Cory, wait, isn't that the man who was at the mansion, Phillip. Wasn't his surname also DeVille?" "I think so. Let's go over there," I said.

As we approached the house, Phillip tended to his garden in the front yard. Not just were sibling allowed to marry now, but men could garden as well. When we approached the walkway to his house, he got up off the ground to meet us. "Ah, Cory, Carrie, so nice to see you again," Phillip said as he hugged us. "It's nice to see you again as well," Carrie said nervously. He let go of us, took of his gloves, put them on the floor, and said, "We've been waiting for you. Come in. Come in." Once inside, as Phillip guided us to his living room, he screamed, "Lil, Cory and Carrie are here!" Most of the living room was clean, except for the floor surrounding one of the couches where someone was sleeping. Phillip walked over to the couch with what looked like a fireplace poker and stabbed the person on the couch. "Bill, wake up, wake up! Clean up your mess," Phillip screamed.

Bill awoke from his scream, moaning, picked up the plates and bags of food, and took them away to another room. Phillip wiped off the mess left over with his hand, and told us to sit down. We sat down where Bill was sleeping, on the larger couch adjacent to the smaller one where Phillip was sleeping. We waited awhile in silence, Carrie and I didn't know why we were here so we didn't know what to talk about. We sat silently for about a minute, I passed the time by tapping the edge of the couch until Mrs. DeVille, the foreign language teacher for Chris III, Leigh, Carrie, and myself.

Mrs. DeVille brought over a tray of snacks, a pitcher of Iced Tea, and some cups and placed them on the coffee table. As she sat down next to Phillip, I pointed out, "Mrs. DeVille, I knew you were married, but I didn't know you were married to Phillip. I should have realized it though." She looked at me and said, "Well, we were so busy the first time we met beating those AIO bastards, we didn't have the time to talk." The DeVille's offered us some of the snacks laid in front of us, we had eaten already but we ate some to be polite. As we ate some of the snacks, Phillip told us, "Don't worry, Jill should be arriving with the papers soon enough." I continued eating, but Carrie interjected, "If I may ask, what are these papers for? I keep hearing so much about them, but I don't know what they are for. "They're government documents, you know, Social Security info and the like," Phillip said.

I thought it over and found it a bit odd that the President would personally hand deliver government records for two insignificant citizens. I asked the DeVille's why she would do that, Mrs. DeVille responded, "Well, she's the only one that high up that Christopher knows to get that kind of information. Well, except for Riley, but like if he would do Chris two favors. And, in all fairness, she's not coming all this way just for you, can't she come and visit her parents?" "I assume, if she loves her parents," I said. The DeVille's nodded in response. We continued eating and drinking the snacks and Iced Tea brought for us, and Carrie continued asking a few more basic questions. Phillip answered them all, but after answering all of them, he turned to Mrs. DeVille and said, "Yup, she is the talkative one."

I was taken aback by what Mrs. DeVille said. How could she know that Carrie was the "talkative one?" I leaned in, and asked the DeVilles, "How did you know that Carrie was the 'talkative one?' Did Chris tell you?" They both looked at each other and began to chuckle. Phillip turned from Mrs. DeVille to us and said, "Ah, we've known about your entire family for a long, long time." I was rather frightened that they knew about our family for a "long, long time," I grabbed onto Carrie's hand and didn't let go.

The DeVille's must have noticed that I was scared, because soon after laughing they asked if I was fine. I looked at them and said, "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just frightened when you said you knew about our family for a long time." "A long, long time," Phillip quickly remarked, "But all kidding aside, your family has brought our family with joy and inspiration for many years, but I guess you already knew that." I turned to Carrie with a confused look on my face. As Carrie shrugged, Phillip realized we had no idea what he was talking about. "Wait, didn't Chris and Cathy tell you? They must have," Phillip asked. "I don't know what Chris and Cathy should have told us," I responded.

The DeVilles turned over and talked to themselves, asking each other if they should "tell" us, tell us what I still did not know. Phillip turned around from his wife and over to us, and asked, "So, how do you like this new world?" "I think it's too liberal. You have to watch what you say or you get publicly chastised," Carrie said, saying exactly what I thought. Phillip moved the muscles of his mouth up to his nose, symbolizing he was thinking of something. He let go of the muscles, and preceded to ask, "Is there anything else you're curious about?" "Wait, what are you doing, you said you were going to tell us something, and now it looks like you are trying to coerce us into telling you something," Carrie indicated.

"Okay, fine. Don't you think it's a bit weird that you somehow live in an entirely new world set nearly a century in the future from your own time and in a completely different universe? I mean, come on, it's kind of ridiculous," Phillip asked with a hint of anger in his tone. I, pretty frightened, answered, "Well, yes." Phillip calmed down and assessed the situation before asking, "Well, would you be surprised if I told you that my wife and I have a similar experience to yours?" "Yes, I would be quite surprised," I said. "I would be more surprised if you weren't," Carrie said responding to the question. Phillip continued, saying, "Well, yeah, the way we got here is sort of similar to the way you got here."

Carrie looked at me before asking Phillip, "That must have been a long time ago?" Phillip turned to her and said while bringing in Mrs. DeVille in much closer, "Yeah, and since being here, we've had one hell of a life. We've seen it all and been through it all. As Phillip held Mrs. DeVille close to him and she kissed him, Carrie pushed me to the side and said, "It's great to know someone who has lived a rich, fulfilling life, because I have some questions. I've heard some outlandish stories of events that supposedly happened between our time and this present moment. I just wanted to know if they really happened or if they are just rumors, fairy tales."

Phillip had an expression on his face that matched his question, "Well, I have an idea of what you are talking about. But, could you be a bit more specific?" "Well, everything really. I have heard stories of black-masked butchers ransacking the desert, stories of an obese eastern dictator, and something about the 'reawakening of the bear,' I want to know if it's true or not," Carrie said. Phillip looked down and inhaled heavily, he looked at us with a haunting gaze and said, "As I said, we were once in a position similar to yours, and I couldn't believe it either. But, the rise and fall of China, endless conflict in the Middle East, a woman becoming president in 2016, it's true, all of it." As we adjusted to the seriousness of the moment, Mrs. DeVille asked, "Wait, Phil, how do we know that reference?" They both proceeded to laugh hysterically, for what I guess was the 'reference' Phillip made.

The DeVille's stopped laughing quite quickly, and Mrs. DeVille congratulated Phillip for saying "one of the most intelligent and sensitive thing" she had ever heard him say. It was at that moment that I realized that the DeVille's sure did have a lot to say. I knew that if I had a question that Chris or Cathy couldn't answer, I could always ask them. Phillip agreed to tell us a little bit more about what happened between our time and the present time. Mrs. DeVille went off to the kitchen to refill the pitcher and bring back more snacks while Phillip went to get some photographs to show us. Carrie and I waited in the living room, sitting on the couch, waiting to have our worlds turned upside down, again.


	21. Phillipbuster

Phillip and Mrs. DeVille returned soon after with refreshments, snacks, and photo albums. Both Phillip and Mrs. DeVille put down what they brought to the living room, and put them down on the coffee table. Phillip turned over to us and asked, "So, what is it exactly that you want to learn?" I faced Carrie, then back at Phillip and said, "Well, I want to know why everything is like this. Why is this present like this?" Phillip looked down and nodded; he raised his head, and said, "Well, I guess your questions can only be answers through the great philosophical words of Pitbull, 'But to understand the future we have to go back in time.' May I ask, how much have you learned already?" "Well, we're about to begin Chapter two in War History, the Syrian Civil War," I said remembering next week's reading assignment.

Phillip then asked, "So, what did you learn in chapter one?" "Well, you know, all of the preceding conflicts, I think. The occupation of Oak Park and Agoura Hills, the Litman's success, those weapons factories in Japan, and the breakout of the war," I said trying to remember the key events we learned about in chapter one. Phillip kept nodding as I went down my list and stopped, he then said, "Well, I don't know much about the first five years or so of the war because I didn't experience them, but I can tell you the rest of the story from my personal perspective." "That would be great," I said as Phillip reached over for a photo album. "Ah, here we go, Incestatopia, late 2017. Here's where I went shirtless hunting-slash-horseback riding-slash-propagandizing with Vladimir Putin," Phillip said as he pointed to a photo of two shirtless men, one of them being his younger self.

He kept going through the rest of the album, pointing at photographs and giving us some insight on whom or what was in the photo. On one photo with many people standing in a row, he circled four of them with his finger, saying, "Ah, the Smiths, the ancestors of the New Incestatopian people. You'll be hearing a lot about them." It got even more interesting when Phillip got to a photo of his younger self shaking hands with an elderly man in a wheelchair. Phillip nodded his head, and looked at me with a smile and asking, "Do you know who he is?" Feeling as if my recent life has been repeating itself, I told him, "Uh, William Anderson." "Yup, exactly, and who is William Anderson? If you know who he was from the picture, you know who he is," said Phillip, kind of taunting me as if I were a child. "Me," I said to answer his question. "Yeah, so you do know a bit more than I thought," he said rather impressed at me.

Realizing that Phillip had met William at least once, I asked him to tell me a bit about him. Phillip did that thing where he puckers his lips in the inside of his mouth to signify he's thinking, and after, he said, "Yeah, I do remember him. He was rich, but he was grateful, unlike Matthew." "Yeah, he was a good man. He even offered to walk me down the aisle. Well, roll me down, because, you know, he was in a wheelchair," Mrs. DeVille said trying to be comedic. By learning that Phillip had a previous relationship with William Anderson; it seemed that everyone I knew had known each other for a long time. I had to ask, "So, when did you meet William Anderson? When was this photo taken?" "Well, this was during his first state visit, but I don't want to give it all away. I want you to enjoy it when you learn about this at school, cause we both know this will be the only thing Matthew will want to portray correctly during the Incestatopia chapter," Phillip said cynically.

I didn't understand why Phillip said that he would tell us about what happened before we arrived, but he always diverged to his point of not wanting to "spoil" the story. I just had to know why he was treating history as if it were a book, and he didn't want to give away the ending while discussing it. Phillip could only respond with, "Well, you should be grateful that you have such a riveting history. If history was this entertaining when I was your age, I might have paid more attention in history class." "Yeah, of course you would," Mrs. DeVille said sarcastically. As Phillip and Mrs. DeVille argued, they almost sounded like Chris III and Leigh at the cafeteria, but their marital status made the bickering reach a status more similar to that of Chris and Cathy. While Phillip and Mrs. DeVille seemed like the complete opposite of Carrie and I at the moment, I still felt as if their relationship was similar to ours, and I soon find out it was.


	22. The Other Side Of The Story

After I was able to broker some sort of truce to the argument, something I had done many times before since it seems that no one is at peace with anyone, I finally got Phillip to tell me a little bit of history.

As soon as Phillip stopped thinking about what he would tell me he said, "Well, I guess I could tell you more about where these photos were taken, I could tell you a bit about Consanguinatopia. It shouldn't spoil anything, but it should introduce you to the power struggle that was going on."

"Very well, tell me more about this Consanguinatopia. Is this where those Smith people you spoke of live? I'm interested to learn anything," I said curiously.

Phillip shook his head as he said, "No, you're thinking of New Consanguinatopia, Consanguinatopia was the country that I ran. When I was removed from power, their founding father, who was part of my administration, continued my vision."

Since Phillip had actually said something about the "past," I was taken aback; I raised my hands to the top of my face and signaled Phillip to slow down. He did stop to answer the question I had, did he really run a country?

He smiled as I asked if he was really once lead a country, a question to which he responded, "Yes, Consanguinatopia, a country where there were no restrictions on the way people could love each other.

As soon as he said those last words I connected the pieces of the puzzle; the fact that Chris and Cathy had such a good relation with them, and well, their physical appearance. The more I that I studied Phillip and Mrs. DeVille's characteristics, the more I realized they looked quite similar. I had to ask if they were in anyway related, even if the question sounded a bit odd and rather personal.

To my surprise, both Phillip and Mrs. DeVille were completely comfortable answering this question, I guess the change in social attitudes made the question less awkward, and there answer was quite simple, "Yes, we're related. We're twins, just like you."

Learning that they are twins cleared up any questions I had over why they would create such a country.

Phillip continued talking about all his country had to offer, "We didn't just offer a home for millions, we made our mark by creating positive culture. We produced a play based on one of Jill's most favorite books, 'Flowers in the Attic.'"

"'Flowers in the Attic,'" I thought to myself before saying, "Flowers and attics, we could relate to that."

Phillip laughed as I said that, and he responded with "Yup, trust me, you would relate to all of it."

I thought about what Phillip said, and knowing he hadn't been sarcastic in the past, I asked why he would say that we would "relate to all of it," and his response was truly a divulgence.

He put his hands together and said, "You would relate to the original story at least, Chris and Cathy would relate to the play. I'll get to that in a minute because the story is about your family's life."

I was taken aback by this revelation, how could our life be a novel?

Phillip explained, "In our original universe, the Dollanganger family story created five widely popular novels, and three 'meh' novels".

He said "meh" as he rocked his open hand facing down from left to right.

Since she had not said a word in a while, Mrs. DeVille continued what Phillip was talking about, "When we arrived in this universe, we needed to prove to the world how normal our country was, so we put on a play based on the book that details you and your sibling's life in the attic. Although we did need to make some adjustments to the original work, because in a world where people associate the word 'Incest' with rape, we couldn't have our heroine fall in love with her brother who technically raped her. That's why we did what any reasonable person would do; we changed it to consensual sex. That's also how the oldest boy, Chris, was conceived, we believe. That might have been our fault for being a bit vague with the ending, basically saying that the family lived happily ever after. The Creepypasta Machine must have used it's insight of the original story which ended with Cathy aged fifteen years old, and a bit over two months after Chris and Cathy had intercourse for the first time. Combining the original information, with our version must have made it interpret the 'happily ever after' type ending quite differently, causing time to pass quite oddly. That must be why Cathy came out of it twenty-five years old and two months pregnant."

Having Mrs. DeVille give a long lecture as she does in class left me confused, and causing me to scream, "Chris raped Cathy?!"

Phillip shook his head and said, "No, the original Chris, such as the one who lived in this universe, was a rapist. Luckily he died in September of 1999; the Chris we know today comes from our play."

After Phillip had cleared up the controversy surrounding Chris, he continued on about his country.

"Everything was fine after the play, until Italy, Israel, and Saudi Arabia decided to invade us because they felt 'threatened' by our 'radical ideas,'" he said in a taunting voice.

He continued ranting about the end of his nation and he cleared up why he and Riley have such a difficult relationship when he said, "It was Riley's meddling that changed the government's mind to allow the other countries access to use their military bases, bases that would be used as launching sites for their campaign. The war would have gone in our favor if he didn't use his corrupt one-percent connections to get the US into the conflict. It was America that decided the fate of the war; they crushed us and our allies. Luckily, the Smiths made it out in time and fled to South America. Another thing, don't worry about our patriotism, it's all fine now. Under former President Hirsch, America made peace with New Consanguinatopia, and because of our daughter, our nation also had a strong military alliance with New Consanguinatopia. You saw that alliance in action at the Battle of Foxworth Hall. Also, I don't want to toot my own horn, but I was the one who pressed the button sending the nuke into the main reactor of the space station of the...well, because I don't want to spoil it, let's just refer to it as the evil empire."

Earlier that day I felt as if I wasn't learning much from the DeVille's, but after that last speech I sure did feel as if I had learned a lot about the "past." Although, they had still not truly explained how Chris and Cathy had gotten here.

When I reminded them of this, Phillip continued, "Well, soon after the war ended, Riley ordered the destruction of whatever piece of our culture was still intact, such as books. The play's transcript was turned into a book and all of those books were destroyed, except for one. Jill managed to smuggle a copy of the play before we escorted out of the former Consanguinatopia, and we all treasured this only existing copy of what we had created. We kept it hidden until one of Riley's friends, and the only world leader allied with NATO during the war who recognized Consanguinatopia, Pharaoh Duncan Coleman wanted to figure out what some TV show was about, I believe it was that Doctor Who show. Anyways, Riley used the Creepypasta Machine to make the characters from the show come to life. Duncan brought over a DVD, and I'll be honest, I don't remember the last time I've used, hell, or even seem a DVD. Also, it was 2018, and I know for a fact Duncan is richer than I am, so if you are going to buy any form of media on a disk, why the hell didn't he spring for the _Blu Ray_? I mean, come on! But, to make a long story short, as soon as I found out what Riley and Duncan were doing, I saw this as an opportunity to use the Creepypasta Machine to reanimate the cast of the play into real life just so we could have some companions. I waited for Riley to put the disk into one of the slots, and right before he started the machine, I rushed in and jammed the book into one of the slots so the machine would read it and turn you guys into real people. Unfortunately, because I put the book in one of the slots a millisecond before Riley pushed the button so that the machine could do its thing, there was some corrupted data shit going on and it took twenty plus years for Chris and Cathy to come out. You and Carrie would have also come out too if it wasn't for Riley who turned off the Creepypasta Machine before it had a chance to reanimate you two. The reason you're here is because Cathy missed you two, even though she already has three kids. So, she begged Jill to write a basic book to extract you the way they were. Unfortunately, Jill had her book stolen by Alexandria and the AIO who somehow got into the Othersiders Mansion, even though it is the most protected building in the world, and created all the events that brought you here to this world."

I then knew how Chris, Cathy, Carrie, and I had gotten here, but there was still one thing that I did not understand.

I asked Phillip, "How does the Creepypasta Machine work?"

His response was less than sufficient compared to what he had said before.

"I don't know. If you ever meet Noah, he's the one who gave the Grandmother the robot body; he should be able to explain it. He's the one who modified it many times over the years to get it to what it is today. If I had to guess, I would say it works like some sort of portal-slash-3D printer," he said as Carrie and I had confused looks on our faces.

When Phillip noticed our faces, he realized that we had no idea what he was talking about, he looked up and said, "Oh, yeah, that's right, you guys are from the 60's."

He continued saying, "Well, a 3D printer is what it sounds like, a printer that creates objects in three dimensions," until he realizes that we still had no idea what he was talking about, leading him to say, "Again, 60's."


	23. Into The City

We heard the door open and saw Jill walk in and ask, "Hey there, is anyone here?"

In entered a woman in her late forties with green eyes and wavy brown hair that reached her shoulders. She wore a navy blue pantsuit with a light blue undershirt. As Chris III later informed me, her résumé was one of the most extensive that I had ever heard of; she had been the mayor of the city, then a member of the California State Assembly, the forty-second Govenor of California, a member of the US House of Representatives, the thirtieth Class III/Junior US Senator from California, and the fifty-fourth Vice President of the United States before being elected to the position of President. She held a Manila envelope, an envelope similar to the one that contained the information for Carrie's role, tightly in between her two hands which she kept next to her abdomen. She stood under the arch that lead into the living room until Phillip got up and greeted her.

"How's my little girl doing?" He asked her.

"Fine dad," she replied as she hugged him.

Mrs. DeVille got up from the couch to hug her daughter after her husband had hugged her too. The relationship between the parents and their child was just like the one my siblings and I used to have, the perfect relationship. That was until the ugly shadow of greed fell upon us and nearly killed us. The only thing we could do now was move on and try not to fall like Corrine had. Meanwhile, Phillip pointed at the folder and signaled Jill with his eyes if it was the folder she said she would bring.

We got off the couch and walked over to the DeVilles when Jill held out the folder and said, "Here you go."

"Thank you," I replied as a turned the folder around in my hands.

Mrs. DeVille put her arm arround Jill and said, "I'm so proud of you, even though you're at the top you still care enough to help two regular people."

At that moment Jill's brother, Bill, dressed in a stained shirt and hair that had not yet been combed, stumbled into the room and declared, "Why do you always talk about how great Jill is?"

"She's President, Bill," Mrs. DeVille said in an obvious tone.

"I did great stuff too, I was a pilot in the war," Bill replied.

Phillip stopped his son in his tracks and told him, "Yeah, for the other side."

"I might have fought for them, but at least I didn't cook for all of the head honchos!"

Phillip turned to Carrie and I and said, "You might want to leave now, say 'Hi' to Chris and Cathy for me."

I nodded in responce before Carrie took my hand and guided me out of the DeVille's home. Phillip kept bringing up parts of Bill's past that now do not look that admirable and vice versa. We didn't get to hear much abou their past, but if recent events taught us anything, we would surley find out when it came time for it to be taught in War History class. Getting back home was not as dificult, apart from getting pass the Secret Service, as getting to the DeVille's home, but still quite complicated since we had been destracted by our meeting. When we made it back home we were let into the home by a Cathy that was singing and dancing arround, delighted that Corrine had been taken away. Chris made it to the bottom of the stairs when Cathy grabbed him by the collar of the clean shirt he had changed into it and brought him in for a big kiss. She danced away as if nothing had happened, leaving Chris, Carrie, and I watching her dance away.

Chris laughed it off, pointed at the folder, and asked, "Are those the documents Jill brought over?"

"Yes they are," I responded.

"Well then, I'm ready, so let's go now," he replied.

Before either Carrie or I could respond, Leigh rushed down the stairs, saying, "Hold up, I'm comming too."

Chris smiled as he saw his daughter comming down the stairs, knowing exactly why she was comming, and as Chris III came down the stairs, saying, "You know what, me too."

"Fine, you three get in the back, Chris, you ride in the passenger seat," Chris told the group, sending Carrie and I to the back row of his car with Leigh.

As the five of us walked out of the door, I couldn't help but look in confusion at the shirt Chris III was wearing. He changed into a clean shirt while we were at the DeVilles, just like Chris, Cathy, and Leigh. The shirt looked similar to alot of the shirts that Chris III owned, it was a plain white shirt with a bewildering word printed on it.

I turned over to Chris III and asked him, "What is that on your shirt?"

"Oh this, it says 'Covfefe,'" he replied.

Even more confused about what he was saying, I asked, "What does 'Covfefe' mean?"

"That's the thing, nobody knows," he relpied before passing me and getting in Chris's car.

Leigh snook up behind me and said, "He was trying to write 'Coverage,' it's a typo."

"'He?' Who's 'he?'" I asked as I was still confused.

"You know, the guy, in the Wh..., never mind," Chris III said, stopping in his tracks.

Knowing that I would not get an answer to my question, I decited to put it behind me. Carrie was about to get into the the back row of the car before Leigh grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back. I mannaged to grab Carrie by her arms before she could fall to the ground as Leigh got in the car and slid through the row to get to her seat. She could have just walked arround the car and opened the door on the other side to get to the spot she sat in, but she chose to forcefully move Carrie out of the way. I decited to sit in the middle seat to act as a barier between Leigh and Carrie. Chris had gotten in and turned his car with a touch of a button, but before leaving the driveway he pressed some buttons on a display in the middle of the car, to the left of the steering wheel, and after a few seconds of what sounded like a telephone ringing, Cathy's face apeared.

Chris called Leigh to stick her head in between the two front seats before telling Cathy, "Hey, Cathy, I just thought you would like to see the expression on your daughter's face when she found out that we're not going to the place Corrine is at."

Leigh's face turned from smug to anoyed, but before she could unbuckle herself and get out of the car, Chris stepped on the pedal and said, "Let's go."

For about the next half hour, Chris drove out of the suburbs and into the heart of the city, simlilar to when he drove Carrie and I to the Othersiders Mansion for treatment. I was still curious about this new world, especially after hearing so much from the DeVilles not that long ago. Now that I knew what to look for, I didn't take my eyes away from the window. A new style of archiceture had become popular in the time between my time with the Arnolds and now. Buildings were much less rigid and were covered in glass. Cars too were more slick, they also made less noise and exhailed less emitions.

But the one thing that caught my attention the most was a large monument in the center of the city meant to commemorate the war. The monument consisted of a long archway with the new American flag, consisting of eighty-six stars, hanging under it. On the top of the monument was a statue of a man and woman embracing their two children, a boy and a girl, with the man's right arm and the woman's left arms sticking out towards the west. Underneath the statue were a series of portraits with a text written in gold underneath that said "In honor of all those who were injured or died defending our nation and world." There was also a second line that read "In commemoration of all the Commander in Cheifs that served during the conflict." The portraits above the line of words were the portraits of the various presidents that served during the duration of the war. The first one on the left of the monument was a colored man, but I knew not to react because I knew Chris III would hit me for even thinking of the word "Colored." That man had the number "44" on the top of his portrait's frame. The portrait next to him, the portrait with the number "45," was completely ruined. Chris III later pointed out that that particular portrait had been vandalized, replaced, and vandalized again so many times that the city eventually gave up on trying to repair it. The portraits continued and I did not know who any of these people were until I reached the final three, the portraits of Riley Litman, Sam Hirsch, and Jill DeVille. I could only see the monument for about a minute, after that my view consisted of other tall buildings. Ten minutes later, Chris pulled into an underground parking lot and parked his car in an available spot close to an elevator door.

Once all five of us had gotten out of the car and were in the elevator, I asked Chris, "Where are we?"

"The National Identity Registry," he said right before the elevator doors closed.


End file.
